THREE men are to be sentenced at crown court after admitting the theft of a jerry can of fuel from an isolated farm in Cowling.

Mark Littlewood, 30, James Marriott, 27, and Kevin Moore, 28, all from West Yorkshire, were caught by police as they drove away from the farm at Gill Top in the early hours of February 2.

Skipton Magistrates' Court heard it was impossible to say what they might have taken, had they not been disturbed, but that they had gone prepared with tools and a balaclava.

The owners of the farm had been alerted by noises outside and had called the police, the court heard.

A search of an outbuilding had revealed one of two padlocks had been removed and a jerry can of fuel, worth a total of £27, was missing.

The three men were stopped as they drove away from the site in a pickup. Inside the van, officers found the jerry can, a padlock, removed from the farm, and other items, including gloves, tools and a balaclava. A pair of bolt croppers were also found nearby in a field, the court heard.

Nadine Clough, prosecuting, told the court it had clearly been a planned offence and although all that had been taken was of relatively low value, the men would have been looking for vehicles.

"We cannot say what would have happened had they not been disturbed," she said.

Littlewood, of Leys Lane, Howarth; Marriott, of Tile Terrace, Brighouse, Calderdale, under a suspended prison sentence at the time, and Moore, of Lombard Street, Leeds, currently on a community order, all admitted burglary and were sent to Bradford Crown Court for sentencing on March 10.

They were allowed bail on condition they not enter North Yorkshire.