A MASKED raider who tried to steal tens of thousands of pounds worth of motorbikes in a break-in at a Swindon hauliers has been jailed for nearly 15 months.

Former soldier Mark Meakin was part of a gang who travelled down from Liverpool to target a lorry parked overnight at Les Smith Haulage on Kelvin Road.

The 38-year-old and his accomplices were clad in balaclavas and wearing industrial gloves when they cut through the fence around the yard off Drakes Way.

But the men were spotted by a CCTV operator and after police raced to the scene Meakin was tracked down to nearby Marlow Avenue.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the suspicious activity was spotted after 4am on Friday, November 25, last year.

Police who arrived at the scene saw at least three men running away and, following a chase, the defendant, who had a crowbar on him, was arrested.

They also found a Mercedes Sprinter van nearby that, it was discovered, had been stolen from Merseyside.

Tools had been used to break through the perimeter fence and inside the yard an articulated lorry had been targeted, with its side apron cut open.

She said two motorbikes and two children’s quad bikes had been moved from off the lorry and left close to the hole in the fence, near their van, before they were disturbed.

Meakin, from Liverpool, pleaded guilty to attempted theft.

The court heard he had eight previous convictions and in January last year was put on a suspended sentence for possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

Michael Butt, defending, said that his client had been in the pub the night before when a former work colleague recruited him for the operation.

There were four or five men involved, he said and added that it was accepted that had they been successful the value of the haul would have been in the tens of thousands.

Mr Butt said his client lived with his partner and five children, two of whom are his, at their rented home on Merseyside.

In the past Meakin had been in the Irish Guards, serving in Germany, but was medically discharged.

He said “The defendant is beside himself with anguish at the stupidity of getting himself involved in this case.”

The suspended sentence was imposed after he and a few mates got together to buy their cannabis in bulk and he was caught holding it.

Passing sentence, Judge Tim Mousley QC said “Obviously this operation was carefully planned.

“Travelling down from Liverpool, stealing a van, knowing how many men were necessary.

“It would seem a minimum value is in the region of £30,000 to £35,000.”

He jailed him for 13 months, with eight weeks of the suspended sentences to be served consecutively.