TWO bungling burglars caused thousands of pounds of damage in a night-time raid on a car wash before escaping with just £59.

Andrew Hill and Phillip Robertson were found guilty by Swindon magistrates of the burglary at the Vela car wash in Bridge End Road, Stratton.

Hill, 35, of Mulberry Grove, and Robertson, 35, of Beech Avenue, pleaded not guilty to the crime, but a large amount of circumstantial evidence and several witness testimonies saw them convicted.

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Both have served prison sentences and have numerous previous convictions on their criminal record - 41 for Robertson and 17 for Hill - with several for burglaries and thefts.

Roxanne Cole, prosecuting, said at about 1.30am on October 18 2017 the burglars cut a hole through concrete in the roof of the car wash and dropped into a room which contained a vending machine, a change machine and various tools.

They nabbed brass keys for both machines, but the cash machine only opened if the outer security door was unlocked. They broke the locks on the inner security door but could not open the outer one, so the machine was still unusable.

They hurried from the scene with £59 in pound coins from the vending machine.

But as they tried to make their escape, Lisa Philpott was closing the nearby Dockle Farmhouse pub for the night.

She said: “Two people approached wearing balaclavas and dark clothing, then went to the right of the pub, which has a dead end and a wall which borders the New Inn car park - you can climb over it if you stand on the bike rack.

“I thought we were going to be broken into so we looked over the wall and saw two men in a van, the only one with lights on and people inside, there was no-one else around, and we called the police.”

The police arrived within 10 minutes and found the pair in the van smoking cannabis. In the vehicle were a crowbar and a lump hammer amongst other tools, brass keys, dark clothing, face masks, and dozens of old and new pound coins.

At the time of the robbery, old pound coins were still being phased out of circulation.

Robertson admitted the cannabis was his when asked by police, but pleaded not guilty to a possession of cannabis charge when he appeared in court - he was later found guilty.

Officers arrested them and took them to the station, where one gave no comment answers and the other remained silent.

Owner Philip Andrew confirmed that the keys found by police were from his car wash.

He said: “You would have had to prise off concrete blocks with a bar or lump hammer to get through the plant room’s roof. We lost two days of work, at £500 a day, because of this burglary.”

An exact figure for the damage caused by the burglary was not given but is estimated to be more than £5,000.

The pair will be sentenced at Swindon Crown Court on February 8.