A 'MAN with a van' from Shipley who claimed he drove to the Upper Dales in the dead of night on a £80 job to 'collect' a quad bike for a client has been found guilty of handling stolen goods.

Jamie Beetham, 27, had one of two Honda TRX quad bikes in his Transit van on May 11 last year, which had been stolen earlier from a farm in Oughtershaw, heard Skipton Magistrates' Court.

A customer at the Racehorses Inn, Kettlewell, watched the Transit at just after midnight drive past, behind a quad bike, with no lights, and being followed closely by a black car, the court heard. He told the pub staff, who believing it to be suspicious, phoned the police.

When officers stopped Beetham on the A65 at Skipton at around 1am, the man who had booked him, and who he claimed he knew only as 'Chris' jumped out of the passenger seat and ran off.

Beetham was arrested and when interviewed the next day, insisted he was just carrying out a job, and was unaware the vehicles had been stolen.

Prosecuting, Nigel Sprosten said it was 'ludicrous' to suggest criminals would hire a man with a van, and questioned why Beetham would not find it suspicious to carry out a job so late at night.

'No self respecting criminals would ever rent a man with a van to collect their stolen goods, the risk of them grassing them up would be just too great,' he said. Beetham who denied handling stolen goods, and also driving without a licence and without insurance, told the court he had lost a great deal of money because his van had been impounded for eight weeks.

He said he advertised his business 'Jamie, Man with a Van' on Facebook and was merely doing a 'innocent' job at the time.

He claimed he had been given just a postcode for a collection point 'somewhere in the Lakes' and had set off from his home in Shipley at around 10.30pm.

When he arrived, a 'group of lads' were waiting for him with two quads, only one of which would fit in his van, and he was on his way to Bradford with one of the men in his van, to an address, 'somewhere near the football stadium' when he was stopped by police.

"I didn't ask any questions, all I was doing was the job," he said.

But magistrates told Beetham, of West Royd Drive, Shipley, that he must have known the quad bikes were stolen, that his version of events was not credible, and found him guilty of handling stolen goods. He was also found guilty of using the van without insurance, after he failed to bring evidence of cover to court, but not guilty of driving without a licence.

He will be sentenced, after reports, at the Skipton court.