Two milkmen doing their rounds in North Yorkshire have helped put two serial vehicle thieves behind bars.

The pair were today starting prison sentences after their £750,000 two-year crime wave was halted by police.

Thefts of 4x4 vehicles in the Vale of York have noticeably dropped since Darren Vincent Dundas and Wayne Malcolm Mitchell, also known as Littlechild, were arrested as they tried to disguise a stolen Subaru in a York lock-up garage.

The pair, possibly with other men, mounted spying trips from the city to spot potential targets before returning to steal off-road vehicles in a wide area stretching from Easingwold to the East Coast.

But they were spotted by milkmen Colin Stubbs and Ian Hudson, who are to get £150 rewards for their part in bringing the pair to justice.

The milkmen are members of the Valewatch rural watch scheme, which mounts night-time patrols in radio contact with police.

Mitchell, 34, of Teddar Road, Acomb, was jailed for three and a half years and Dundas, also 34, of Salisbury Terrace, York, for three years.

Both men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and handling stolen goods on the day of their trial. Mitchell also admitted possessing amphetamine.

DC Keith Ruff, who headed Operation Lurcher which hunted down the pair, said: "I am pleased with the sentences. I think it has been a worthwhile exercise and shows what can be done when the police and public work together."

Dundas' brother Alan Dundas, aged 26, of Leven Road, Dringhouses, pleaded guilty to handling a stolen car radio and was given 120 hours' community service.

Judge Anthony Briggs told Teesside Crown Court that 4x4 vehicles worth a total of £750,000 had "gone missing" from the York area, but he was only sentencing the conspirators for the eight vehicles worth a total of £57,000 they had admitted stealing separately or together in 1997 and 1998.

Deborah Sherwin, prosecuting, said the two thieves pretended to be poachers as they spied out the land for future thefts.

She described how three vehicles stolen in 1997 were traced to an airfield where Mitchell rented a garage in 1996 and 1997 and parts were found with Darren Dundas' fingerprints on them.

For Mitchell, Nicholas Johnson said he had stolen cars as a young man but had since then gone straight, apart from stealing an engine in the mid-nineties. His thieving was restricted to five vehicles over a six month period in 1998.

For Darren Dundas, Andrew Cohen said he had found his seven months on remand very hard and his young partner would give birth in a week's time.

For Alan Dundas, Simon Hickey said because of the circumstances in which he obtained the stolen car radio, he would be more careful in future when he repaired cars he got second-hand.

Colin Stubbs has called for other early workers to help the police catch criminals.

He said: "I'm over the moon with the reward but that's not what I did it for."

"These people have to be stopped and if people are scared and don't stand up to them they will just carry on.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.