THIEVES raided empty homes left devastated by the floods that ravaged a Northumberland town.
Karl Hogg and Craig Miller made the hour-long trip to Morpeth from their homes near Sunderland.
The jobless pair, one wearing a high visibility jacket like a bona-fide workman – travelled in a flat bed truck.
And they toured the drenched town looking for whatever they could scavenge or steal. The pair even stole a rabbit hutch from the garden of a wrecked property.
But they were snared after keen-eyed neighbours grew suspicious about the men loading up a truck.
Paul Caulfield, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court: “Morpeth had been severely effected by serious flooding. Police were called about suspicious people carrying items to a white flat bed vehicle.” Hogg and Miller climbed over a gate to raid a house in Bennetts Walk which was being repaired from the flooding damage it had suffered.
They stole all the power tools the owner was using for the repairs, including expensive power drills and a grinder.
