A KIDDERMINSTER father-of-eight has been jailed for nine months at Hereford Crown Court for stealing a £10,000 mini digger which he had hired.

Job Clarke, who pleaded guilty to theft, was jailed for 10 months at Worcester Crown Court last month for stealing a £10,000 horse box and handling a stolen £7,000 Citroen car.

Recorder Jonathon Gosling ordered that 37-year-old Clarke, of Eddy Road, Foley Park, Kidderminster, should serve his latest sentence concurrently with the other.

The mini digger was hired in April last year from Malvern Plant Hire, said Miss Suzanne Llewellyn, prosecuting.

Clarke paid a £290 deposit but the digger disappeared from a site in Stroud and he never paid the £1,240 balance of the hire fee.

Clarke gave a bogus address and made a false claim that he had notified police that the digger had been stolen. It has never been recovered.

Mr Nigel Stelling, defending, said the sentence would not have been increased by much had the offence been dealt with at the previous court appearance.

Recorder Gosling said Clarke had a dishonest streak when entrusted with other people's property. The jail sentence was inevitable although it would continue to cause disruption and misery to Clarke's extended family.