A FEW hours after a valuable table was taken in a smash-and-grab raid on a Malvern antique shop, police saw two men in the local library looking at a book on antiques.

Their car was later seen outside an address not far from Malvern Studios and the table was found in a van at the rear, said Jonathan Richards, prosecuting.

The householder, 36-year-old Arthur Arnold, of Orford Way, Malvern, said he had been asked to transport the table to Birmingham but denied knowing it was stolen.

However, he was convicted of handling stolen goods in September and was yesterday jailed for nine months at Worcester Crown Court.

Arnold, who has two convictions for handling stolen property in the past five years, was described by Judge Michael Mott as "simply bent".

Andrew Abbey, aged 35, of Pound Bank Road, Malvern, and Jason Woodman, 31, of Moat Crescent, also in Malvern, admitted handling stolen goods. Sentence was deferred for six months.

Mr Richards said the shop window in Cowleigh Road was smashed at 3.30am on April 2 with a dumbell weight. An Edwardian writing table worth £3,250 was taken by two men seen loading it into a car.

When Abbey and Woodman were arrested after being seen in the library the same day, they said they had been asked by two men to arrange transport for the table.

Richard Adams, defending, said both men had changed their ways in recent months. Abbey was working as a maintenance contractor at a college and was regarded as an excellent employee.

Woodman had also been working for the first time in 10 years and had recently become a father. He had cured a drug habit.

William Rickarby, for Arnold, said there was no pre-arranged conspiracy to dispose of the table. He had already been punished because he had lost work as a result of the publicity from the trial.