Two young men who helped a shop manager dispose of his spoils after he burgled £33,000 from his store came “within an ace” of being locked up, a judge warned.

Jack Bennett, 21, and Ashley Field, 20, handled bank notes raided by Andrew Halligan from the Co-op in Bingley’s 5Rise shopping centre on March 16 last year.

Halligan, 35, of Myrtle Walk Centre, Bingley – who fled to Skegness with the money – was jailed for two years in May last year.

In full view of the store’s CCTV cameras, he stuffed a carrier bag with the contents of the safe after using his keys to let himself in at the dead of night.

Yesterday, Bennett, of Harewood Crescent, Oakwood, Keighley, and Field, of Denewood Crescent, Aspley, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to handling cash stolen by Halligan.

Bradford Crown Court heard that the three men were out drinking when Halligan said he was going to burgle the shop.

Afterwards, the trio took a taxi to Harrogate with the cash in a sports bag.

Halligan and Field went on to Skegness where they shared out some of the money and spent it on drink, the court was told.

Bennett handed himself into the police very soon after the offence and Field shortly after that.

David McGonigal, Bennett’s barrister, said he had learned a valuable lesson.

“This has had a salutary effect upon him,” Mr McGonigal said.

Judge Jonathan Rose sentenced both men to 12 months’ custody suspended for two years, with 200 hours’ unpaid work.

He warned them any breach of the order would mean they were locked up.

Judge Rose said: “You have had a very lucky escape. You have come within an ace of going away today. If you come back before me again, it means you are ready to go to prison.”

Halligan had worked for the Co-op for five years when he committed the drunken burglary.