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A Network Rail employee who took seven lengths of track left by the railway line near Lydford-on-Fosse to sell as scrap has been given a 12-month community order by Frome magistrates, and ordered to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work.

Thomas McDade, 39, of Silver Street, Chard, admitting stealing the pieces of track which had been left in a ditch for collection by his employers, Network Rail.

The scrap value of the track was put at ^300.

McDade, who has worked for the railways since leaving school ^ first for British Rail and latterly for Network Rail ^ was suspended from his job as a result of the offence.

His solicitor Bill Gayer said the taking of spare track had been a common practice among rail employees in years gone by, before the value of scrap metal shot up. Network Rail now collects its scrap lengths of track and sells it commercially.

Crown prosecutor Helen Marshall said McDade had been working from the Castle Cary depot.

On the afternoon of June 8 his lorry was stopped by police conducting an investigation into unrelated incidents of lead that had been stripped from nearby roofs.

McDade was wearing orange Network Rail overalls, and said he was transporting the lengths of track in his lorry to another depot.

When the police checked with his head office, they discovered that McDade had not been authorised to remove it.

It was also confirmed that he was due to work a night shift and was not on duty at the time, so he should not have been in Network Rail uniform. Mr Gayer said that although it might have been illegal for employees to take the scrap lengths of track that were left near the lines, it had been common practice for them to do so.

"A large number of people who work for Network Rail and used to work for British Rail did this at some time," he said. "What happens now is that Network Rail collects it and transports it to another site to be sold as scrap now that it is so much more valuable. You often see the spare lengths of track dumped beside the line, or left in ditches."

Mr Gayer said the metal McDade took might well have been left there, and never picked up.

McDade was ordered to pay ^40 towards court costs alongside his punishments.