A LORRY driver who stole fencing from a Stourport company to help pay off £14,000 debts has escaped a jail sentence.

Father-of-four David Beasley hitched up a trailer at Larch Lap on the Hartlebury trading estate and drove off with the £1,970 load.

The Mercedes tractor unit was discovered dumped in a Redditch lay-by two days later with the fencing missing, said Samantha Crabb, prosecuting.

Beasley, of Bincomb Avenue, Sheldon, Birmingham, had made £1,000 from the sale but was sacked and has been jobless since, said his barrister Nick Wrack.

Recorder Christopher Murray gave 45-year-old Beasley 70 hours of community work and an 18-month community rehabilitation order.

Beasley, who admitted theft of the fencing and taking the tractor unit without consent, had been delivering to the Larch Lap site.

But instead of returning to his depot after further drops, he drove back to the fencing manufacturer to commit the theft, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Beasley, who had no previous convictions, had brought shame on his family by his idea to help alleviate £14,000 debts, said Mr Wrack.