The former manager at the Westbury Trackwork depot has avoided jail for stealing scrap railway lines.

Martin Wrighthouse admitted abusing his position at the yard, next to Westbury station, to arrange the theft.

But after hearing the tracks were scrap, a judge imposed a suspended sentence.

The 51-year-old took part in the theft with haulier Melvyn Bownes, 50.

Wrighthouse, formerly of Primrose Place, Westbury, but now living in Cheshire, and Bownes, of Worksop, Nottinghamshire, pleaded guilty to theft of the lengths of track, which belonged to Network Rail and were worth up to £3,990, from the depot on December 22, 2011.

Passing sentence last Friday, Judge Douglas Field imposed a three-month jail term suspended for a year on Wrighthouse and ordered him to do 180 hours of community service. Bownes was put on a community service order and told to do 120 hours of unpaid work.