Three 'buttie burglars' have paid a high price for grabbing out-of-date sandwiches for a free feast.
The trio – who worked in a nearby electrical store – believed they had permission to take the snacks from the shopping centre café after it closed.
But when the food – worth a total of £26 – went missing, the police were called in, CCTV film studied and the three culprits charged with burglary.
The theft happened at the Middleton Grange mall in Hartlepool.
The café had no shopfront and its counter was accessible to the three, who worked late at BrightHouse electrics.
The trio admitted taking the items in November but believed they had the 'right to do so', Clare Donaldson, prosecuting, told Hartlepool magistrates court.
Mitigating, Dave Smith said colleagues at BrightHouse had told the three it was all right to take out-of-date stock from the café.
'While burglary is a big word and is not a pleasant word to hear or read on somebody's record, this is about as bottom end as a burglary can be without falling off the scale,' he said.
Alex Bell, 35, Emma Berry, 18, both of Hartlepool, and Jeffrey Marchant, 39, of Middlesbrough, admitted burglary and were given 12-month conditional discharges and ordered to pay £8.66 compensation and £90 costs each.
All had no previous convictions. Marchant may now have to quit his role as a school governor, the court heard.
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