TWO brothers who drove into the countryside at night to steal from phone boxes and parking machines were told by a judge this week: “It’s clearly a way of life for you.”

Peter, 36, and 26-year-old John Smith, of Peterborough, had toured mid and north Wales before they were arrested at Llanymynech, near Oswestry in February.

They pleaded guilty to four charges of theft and one of being equipped to steal and were jailed for 27 months, with their Volvo car being seized.

The pair had started at Aberystwyth, stealing £471 from a BT phone box, they got £600 from a parking meter near Dolgellau, an unknown amount from another in the town itself, and £229 from a phone box at Carno in Powys, after drilling into cash boxes.

Prosecuting at Caernarfon Crown Court, Sion ap Mihangel said cash and coins had been recovered, but the amount of damage came to £4,465.

This had occurred in just one night - “targeted and sophisticated.”

Both men had previous convictions for thefts from phone boxes.

Defence barrister John Hedgecoe said Peter Smith, married with five children, bought and sold old cars, and hoped to restart this business in a modest way.

John Smith hoped to start in business with a loan from his father.

Judge Niclas Parry, who said a significant amount of money had been recovered after “a mini crime wave” in which the two men set off for rural areas equipped with gloves and tools.

“There’s was a professionalism about all of this,” he said.