A MAN and a woman from the Upperby area of Carlisle have admitted stealing a garden shed that belonged to one of their former neighbours.

Ashley Saysell, 51, and his co-defendant Lorna Regan, 33, had originally denied stealing the shed from a garden in Sunneymeade on January 30 last year but they changed their plea to guilty on the day of their trial.

They did, however, face a trial on an allegation of handling the same neighbour’s bike after it too was allegedly stolen.

But after hearing prosecution evidence, magistrates dismissed the handling charge for both defendants, who live at the same property in Sunnymeade.

During the trial, prosecutor George Shelley said police recovered CCTV footage of the defendants arriving at Carlisle’s Cash Converters store on Lowther Street on January 28 last year.

They sold the store a woman’s Elswick bike which the prosecution said matched the description of the one their neighbour had owned. The pensioner had stored it in the shed that was later stolen, the court heard.

The background to the allegations, the court heard, was that the owner of the missing bike was moving home and received a call from the removal firm to say her shed had been broken into.

There was also a further call reporting that the bike she stored in the shed had been taken.

In her evidence, the pensioner said that nobody had permission to take the bike, which she had bought for around £200 but never used. It was still in its packaging; she told the court.

But under questioning from defence lawyers Andrew Gurney, for Saysell, and Duncan Campbell, for Regan, the woman conceded that she could not be sure the bike seen in the CCTV footage from Cash Converters was hers.

She had no record of the missing bike’s serial number, she confirmed.

In his police interview, Saysell told police he had not taken the bike from his neighbour’s shed. He said the bike he and his co-defendant took to Cash Converters - and sold for £50 - was a gift from her mother.

“He said the bike did not belong to [his neighbour],” said Mr Shelley. Regan also denied any involvement in removing their neighbour’s bike from the shed.

When told by an officer that the missing Elswick bike was green and purple and had a basket, Regan said the bike she owned had a different coloured saddle.

After submissions by both defence lawyers, who said the prosecution had failed to establish that the bike sold by the defendants was the one stolen from the shed, magistrates dismissed the charge of handling stolen goods for both defendants.

For stealing the shed, Regan was fined £162, with costs of £250 and a £62 victim surcharge. She must pay £50 compensation for the loss of the shed. Saysell will be sentenced on March 7 after a background report has been prepared.