TWO highly paid workers whose jobs required them to stay in Penrith repeatedly stole from the town’s Sainsbury’s supermarket.

Ryan Myers, 32, whose take-home pay was said to be £5,000 per month, and his fellow worker Lee Paley, 37, whose monthly earnings can top £6,000, repeatedly visited the store to steal.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate Magistrates’ Court, both men entered guilty pleas to multiple thefts. Myers admitted six shop thefts, committed over October and November, while Palay admitted five thefts.

Prosecutor Pam Ward said the men committed the offences together, repeatedly going to  the Common Garden Square store and taking items before leaving without paying. “They arrived together in a while transit van,” said the prosecutor.

On the last occasion, on November 24, Myers was caught attempting to stealing items worth £55 and taken by security staff to the store’s office. This was when the spree of offending for both men came to light.

The value of the goods taken by Myers was £323 while Paley stole goods worth £268.

Defence lawyer Duncan Campbell told magistrates that such offending was normally the preserve of professional shoplifting "gangs", not something done by men who were holding down such well paid jobs.

"This is not a situation you come across particularly often," said the lawyer. "Both men are in very responsible jobs, with very good incomes.  Neither can give any proper explanation.

“But they very much regret this and have been fully cooperative with the authorities.” The men did not travel to Penrith to steal; they were already staying there – on two nights per week – with their jobs, the court heard.

Paley, a father-of-three, was a man with no previous convictions and Myers has no recent convictions, the court heard.

Passing sentence, the presiding magistrate told the defendants: “It was a really strange thing to do when you earn the salaries you earn.”

Myers, of Weston Drive, Otley, and Paley, of Weston Lane, Otley, were each given a £1,400 fine, told to pay a £560 victim surcharge, and ordered to pay £134 compensation to Sainsbury’s in Penrith.  The men were told they can settle their £2,179 debt to the court at a rate of £500 per month.

As the case concluded, the magistrate said to the men: "Perhaps you will think very careful before doing something as silly as that again; it was incredibly expensive shopping, wasn't it?"