Two men have been jailed after stealing lead from the roofs of lock up garages in Croydon.

John Turner, 38, of Chertsey Crescent, New Addington, and Raymond Howard, 31, of Erica Gardens, Shurblands, pleaded guilty to stealing £1,756 worth of metal, which they claim had been removed from roofs by someone else.

Turner and Howard were sentenced to four months jail at Croydon Crown Court last week, though Turner will be forced to serve a further eight months after breaching his suspended sentence for a previous conviction for possession and cultivating cannabis with the intent to supply.

The theft, which occurred at Garrick Crescent, in Croydon, on March 21, saw the pair arrested after a neighbour noticed that lead on nearby garages had been tampered with.

The pair claim they found the metal and thought it had been abandoned.

But Judge Steven Waller said he found it difficult to believe that they had just happened to be in the area of the garages and come across the metal, though he did admit there was no evidence that they had actually stripped it from the roofs.