Two men have been given prison sentences after admitting travelling to the island to steal cooking oil.

Nikolay Kostov and Nikolay Lyutskanov, who both live in Sheffield, told police that they would sell the oil in England.

It was said that used cooking oil can be turned into fuel.

Both men pleaded guilty to theft and going equipped to steal.

Kostov admitted an additional offence of burglary, committed in 2022, after which he had left the island while on bail.

Acting Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes sentenced Kostov to eight weeks’ custody and Lyutskanov to four weeks.

Both men have no previous convictions and have been on remand since November 18, so will be time served.

Prosecuting advocate Peter Connick told the court that, on October 8, 2022, 38-year-old Kostov drove a van to the Hawthorn pub in Greeba at 7am.

He went into a yard and took six drums containing vegetable oil from an outbuilding.

The incident was captured on CCTV footage and Kostov was arrested on November 8, 2022.

However, he was then granted bail by police and never returned.

On November 16 this year, police received information that Kostov, who lives at Abbeydale Road, had returned to the island.

He was found in a van on Loch Promenade in Douglas, with 26-year-old Lyutskanov.

A search of the vehicle found drums of cooking oil in the back, along with syphoning equipment.

One of the drums was labelled ‘Victoria Grill’.

Police made enquiries with the Douglas restaurant and were told that the oil was put at the rear of the premises for Douglas Waste Management Services to collect.

During a police interview, Lyutskanov, who lives at Willoughby Street, said he had arrived on the island that morning.

He said that they planned to go back to the UK with the oil and someone there would collect it from them.

Kostov told police that someone in London had bought his travel ticket for him and he had travelled here from Heysham.

He admitted taking the oil, saying he would go to restaurants to get it, then sell it to a Turkish man in the UK.

He said he would then post the cash he made back to Bulgaria.

Kostov said that, in Sheffield, cooking oil was often stolen by other people, so he had come to the island.

He said that he would get paid £480 per tonne.

He then claimed that a man who was cleaning outside the Victoria Grill had given him permission to take the oil.

Prosecutor Mr Connick said that no details of how much oil was in the van had been provided but it had not been a fully loaded vehicle.

The prosecutor sought an exclusion order for the two men, saying that they had travelled here with the sole purpose of committing the offences.

Defence advocate Stephen Wood represented Kostov and said that the offences related to a very low value, as it had been estimated that the total worth of the oil taken was £250.

Mr Wood said that they were small cooking oil barrels and the cost of taking the matter to trial, to the taxpayer, would have been in the region of £50,000.

The advocate said that his client was the main breadwinner for his family, and asked the court to consider the article eight human rights of his three children.

Lyutskanov was represented by Darren Taubitz, who also said that the oil taken was of a relatively low value, estimating it at 0.48p per kilogram.

Mr Taubitz also asked the court to consider the article eight human rights of his client's three children, saying that he was also the breadwinner for his family.

The advocate said that the two men had spent 26 days in custody, the equivalent of a 52 day sentence.

No exclusion order was made, but the Acting Deputy High Bailiff told the men: ‘I very strongly advise you to go home after the conclusion of these proceedings and not to return unless it’s for legitimate reasons.’