Pair spared jail for catching teenage intruder and dangling him from a forklift truck

But slipping unannounced into the car pound in the early hours probably wasn't the best thing the 17-year-old could have done.

He was caught by staff - who decided to "teach him a lesson" by tying his hands and legs and then leaving him to dangle upside down from the arms of a forklift truck.

When police arrived they arrested the teenager.

But yesterday it was his tormentors who appeared in court, where they were given suspended prison sentences.

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A judge told them their behaviour had been disproportionate, "coldly cruel and bullying".

Steven Marchbank, 41, a site manager at AAA Road Rescue in Leyland, Lancashire, was given a 28-week sentence suspended for six months at Burnley Crown Court.

His employee, Michael Prescott, also 41, was given a 16-week suspended sentence plus four weeks suspended for a charge of perverting the course of justice.

Both men were also ordered to do 50 hours of unpaid work.

In what Judge Pamela Badley described as a "tawdry episode", the court heard how Prescott, of Southport, had discovered the boy on the company premises in the early hours of April 28.

He contacted Marchbank, of Bretherton, who told him to detain James.

The teenager had his hands tied behind his back and his legs bound together, and was then suspended-from the arms of the forklift truck and left to hang upside down before the pair called police.

He had managed to free himself by shaking his trainers free.

Charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm were brought against Marchbank and Prescott after investigators studied the incident on CCTV, while no charges were brought against James.

Judge Badley said: "Any reasonable organisation which suffers the problem of an intruder in those circumstances would normally call the police but that did not happen."

She added: "I have to take into account the fact that the 17-year-old who was trespassing was not doing so as a potential thief.

"There was a delay before the police were called, during which you chose to humiliate and frighten him. The manner in which he was treated was disproportionate and was coldly cruel and bullying."

The court heard that both men were of previously good character.

Roderick Priestley, for the prosecution, said that Prescott had admitted his actions were "wrong and disproportionate" and that Marchbank "regrets his actions in the cold light of day".

They had both pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm at an earlier hearing.

Prescott also admitted perverting the course of justice after giving a version of events to police which the judge said differed from the truth.

Judge Badley gave Prescott a shorter sentence in light of the fact he was acting under orders from his boss.

His month-long sentence for perverting the course of justice is to run consecutively to his 16-week sentence for the assault.