A man has admitted stealing a small JCB digger worth £6,500 from his employer.

Craig Stephen Gelling, of Ellerslie Gardens, Castletown, was a foreman at Colas Limited at the time and took the mini digger from Balthane industrial estate.

Gelling, aged 30, will be sentenced on April 2 after a probation report has been completed.

Prosecutor Roger Kane told the court how Colas representatives contacted police on January 31 reporting that one of their diggers was missing.

They reported that only a small number of people used it and none of them knew where it was.

Stolen

However, on March 8, information was received that a JCB digger was due to be transported by Manx Independent Carriers.

Police went with Colas to identify the digger and it was confirmed as the stolen one.

Investigations led to Gelling, who was arrested and interviewed.

He told police that he had borrowed the digger, possibly in July, but said that he was not sure exactly when.

He said he had previously borrowed it on a number of occasions but had not asked this time.

Gelling said it had remained on his land and he had forgotten about it.

But he said when he heard about the police investigation, he went into panic mode and made the decision to sell the digger.

He said he had contacted a company and agreed to sell the digger to them for £6,500.

Mistake

Gelling admitted he had removed Colas stickers from the JCB but on March 3 had received a call from the company saying that they knew the digger belonged to Colas.

Gelling said that he had since returned the money to the company plus £400 costs which they had incurred when they travelled to view it.

He told police that it was the ’biggest mistake of his life’ and that he should have owned up.

Defence advocate David Clegg asked for a probation report to be prepared before sentencing.

High Bailiff Jayne Hughes ordered that the report consider all options, including custody, and said: ’This is a serious offence of theft of a high value item when you were in a position of responsibility.’

Bail was granted in the sum of £500 with conditions that Gelling reside at his home address, contact probation, and not leave the island without court permission.