A cheeky fry-up for train thief

A cheeky tramp sneaked on to a train and cooked himself breakfast and stole 24 miniature bottles of booze. Mark Armstrong, 34, crept on to a London-bound Virgin Express while it was stopped at Preston's railway station overnight, and helped himself to the freshly restocked buffet.

The drunken thief, who walked on to the unlocked train at around 4.30am on Monday, pocketed five bottles of Beefeater gin, eight bottles of Vladivar vodka and five bottles of Teacher's whisky before downing six more mini bottles of vodka.

The hungry thief then chose a packet of Linda McCartney sausages and some bacon and cooked it for himself in the buffet cart. Stunned staff, who had left the train unlocked while they cleaned it, found Armstrong tucking into the breakfast at around 5am and alerted British Transport Police.



Armstrong later told police he had downed three litres of cider in Preston city centre and missed his last train to Leyland. He had decided to board the open train because he was cold, and insisted he had never intended to steal anything until he spotted the tempting buffet.

PC Keith Holmes, who charged the man, said: "We deal with a lot of theft but for a man to sneak on a train and cook his own breakfast is amazing – in my 20 years on the railway I have never seen anything like it."

Armstrong, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to the theft and was fined £30 at Preston Magistrates Court on Monday. The court also ordered him to pay £18.64 compensation to the train company, as well as £45 costs and a £15 victim's surcharge.