A GOOD Samaritan helped a Lake District visitor tow his boat to safety after it broke down on Ullswater - and then he stole it.

The boat’s owner discovered the theft of his £2,000 boat on June 25 as he returned to the area to retrieve it and - purely by chance - saw the vessel was being towed away on the A66 by the man who had earlier helped him, 29-year-old Jamie Brand.

The defendant admitted theft.

At Carlisle’s Rickergate court, prosecutor George Shelley outlined the facts. He described how the victim found he needed help during a visit to the Pooley Bridge camp site when his boat broke down during a trip on Ullswater.

Knowing that the defendant had a Subaru Forester with a tow bar, the man asked Brand if he would help him to retrieve his boat, which he did.

Brand agreed to tow the boat to a nearby location near the camp site, where he asked the farmer if she could leave it and its trailer behind a building until he could get somebody to pick it up later and this was duly done.

“It was while driving on the A66 eastbound that the [owner of the boat and trailer] was overtaken by a red Subaru,” said Mr Shelley. Brand was driving and a woman was in the passenger seat.

The vehicle was pulling his trailer with his boat still on it.

Realising that he had been recognised, Brand raised his middle finger towards the boat’s owner. The man followed the vehicle and then called the police, who were able to recover the stolen boat.

The court heard that Brand has 22 previous offences on his criminal record.

Craig Sutcliffe, for the defendant, Grove Mount, Kirby, Pontefract said the case should be sent to a magistrates’ court in Leeds so that it can be dealt with there alongside a criminal damage offence that the defendant has also admitted.

The defendant was remanded in custody until that hearing next month.