Estate agents Ali Khan and Nigel Brown (pictured) of award-winning North East firm Spire Property Group, have told The Neg how they caught burglars midway through ransacking their offices, preventing them from stealing vital keys and equipment.

The estate agency’s director, Khan, says he was woken by a call from Associate property consultant Brown at 2:15 am on a Saturday morning, to tell him the office alarms were going off.

20-minute wait

The police were called, but before they arrived, the pair entered the building to find that two burglars had gained entry to the upper floors of the building, where the company stored items for rental properties, many of them electrical, such as TVs, irons, and toasters.

The burglars were attempting to cut their way through the floor to get into the separate, formal office area on the ground floor.

They could have used the hatch, but luckily it was buried under a couple of mattresses.”

Kahn says: “They could have used the hatch, but luckily it was buried under a couple of mattresses.”

One of the men escaped through a window, but Khan and Brown trapped the other while they waited 20 minutes for the police to arrive.

The second burglar has since been arrested, and they have both now appeared in different courts, but on the same day, to admit their parts in the raid on Spire’s offices.

Guilty pleas

Stuart Wylde, 42, of Hudson Avenue, Horden, Co Durham, pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary in a hearing at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.

And Gary Drinkald, 48 of Bexley Street, Millfield, admitted the same charge at Bedlington Magistrates’ Court in Northumberland.

Although they each have previous convictions, according to a report in the Sunderland Echo,  Drinkwald has more previous convictions than Wylde, but with prosecutor Paul Anderson remarking of Wylde “he is no angel”, either.

They were released on bail and are now awaiting sentencing.