ELECTRICIAN Vernon Guerri-Buckland has been cleared of being involved in stealing paving slabs from a stone mason company.

The 43-year-old was accused of two counts of theft of stone together with Stephen Johnstone, the yard manager for Holley Hextall Associates at Heddington Wick.

But Guerri-Buckland, of Parkfields, Devizes, who is a director of Devizes-based refrigeration and electrics business RMS, was cleared of all counts after a judge at Swindon Crown Court ruled there was insufficient evidence against him.

Johnstone, 42, of Estcourt Crescent, Devizes, is still on trial for nine counts of theft, and a third defendant James Bodman, 40, of Worton, for three matters of handling stolen goods.

Bodman, a former pig farmer who has since gone into business with Johnstone, is accused of handling a stolen granite worktop fitted at his farm, as well as terracotta tiles and paving slabs for which he either didn't pay or did not pay enough.

Company boss Terence Holley said he had been suspicious about Johnstone pilfering from work when a chance meeting with a private detective gave him the opportunity to test his worker's honesty.

Private eye David Ormstone said he paid £360 for some crazy paving with marked £20 notes which he handed to Johnstone, who put it in a brown envelope.

However, when the cash never made it to the office Mr Holley suspended the yard manager.

When the men met days later at the office £320 in £10s and £20s was found in a white envelope in a cash box in a drawer.

Mr Ormstone told the court that the money was not the same cash he had paid with and the notes were not marked.

The jury was told that Johnstone's colleague Paul Rogers, 35, of Kenilworth Gardens, Melksham, had admitted assisting an offender by planting the envelope in the cash box in the drawer.

Johnstone claims that he didn't steal anything and that Mr Holley was taking revenge on him because he had not backed him up in a row over a garage bill.

Bodman said he paid for the items he received, but asked for the receipt for the granite to say paving slabs so he could claim the VAT back on it.

Both men deny all charges and the trial continues.