A YOUTH has appeared in court after attempting to steal disused sections of a railway track.

The 17-year-old boy from Burnley was caught trying to remove sections of the track, which had been left in a car park near to the railway line at Cliviger on Friday, November 2.

The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at Reedley Youth Court yesterday to attempting to steal the track in order for it to be sold for scrap metal.

He was ordered to attend an attendance centre for 18 hours over a period of six weeks and was also fined £50 court costs.

David Leach, defending, said that the boy had been told by a resident that he could take the track.

Mr Leach said: "He assumed the metal was scrap and he had spoken to a resident nearby who said that the metal could be taken but the 17-year old boy should have realised that the neighbour didn't own the metal so had no permission to take it. "

Margaret Duckworth, prosecuting, said the youth had been seen in the car park along with a 15-year-old boy.

Both of the boys were wearing bright yellow jackets posing as railway workers and were in possesion of tools to cut up the metal track.

An eyewitness had seen the boys and reported it to the police as they were wearing yellow jackets rather than the orange ones sported by railway workers.

When questioned by the British Transport Police, the 17-year-old, who is from a travelling family and makes his living from scrap metal, gave a false name to avoid being caught.

Mrs Duckworth said that the incident was not as serious as it could have been as the railway track was disused and was not part of the line.

Magistrates said that the incident was of medium seriousness but had obviously been planned and was a joint enterprise.

The chair of the bench said that there had been a spate of thefts of scrap metal and its value had also increased in the last couple of months. She said that had to be represented by the sentence.

The 15-year-old boy was given a formal reprimand for his part in the offence .