A FORESTRY craftsman who denied a £10,400 theft been acquitted of two of the three charges he was facing.

Harvey Davidson, 30, went on trial at Carlisle Crown Court this week. He had pleaded not guilty to three theft charges.

These related to money which was alleged to have been stolen from car park ticket machines at the Grizedale and Whinlatter forests in the Lake District.

Davidson, described as a man of good character, protested his innocence throughout the trial.

And after hearing all evidence in the case, jurors yesterday cleared him of two charges covering a period from late 2013 to early 2014.

They unanimously found him not guilty of stealing £5,747 from two machines at Grizedale. And, on a majority verdict, they acquitted him of an alleged £407 theft from the same site.

The jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on the third count. This related to the alleged theft of £4,239 from three ticket machines at Whinlatter, near Keswick.

Recorder Michael Smith granted the prosecution 14 days in which to decide whether to seek a retrial on this charge.

In the meantime Davidson, of Portland Square, Workington, was remanded on bail.

It had been alleged by the prosecution that Davidson was the "chief suspect" for the thefts, which were said to have occurred on almost 40 separate occasions.

This was because he had previously emptied the machines as part of his job, and knew where the "unique" sets of keys which operated each was kept.

He was employed as a forestry craftsman at the time by the Forestry Commission, which owned the machines.

Jurors heard that he was quizzed by police following his arrest in June, 2014. Davidson admitted he had been shown how to open and empty the machines when that task had been carried out by the Forestry Commission.

But at the time of the alleged thefts that job was carried out exclusively by an external contractor. Davidson was also asked about cash found by police who searched his home, in June 2014, after his arrest. Officers found £2,350.20 in coins in a bag under his bed. Around £9,000 in notes was found in his briefcase. Davidson said he was responsible for that money, which had belonged to his late mother. She had died earlier that year.

Asked why his phone was "cell-sited" close to Grizedale and Whinlatter at the times of some of the alleged crimes, he said he spent a lot of his spare time close to Whinlatter - in the Lorton area where he had grown up and knew many people. He also regularly carried out private, non-Forestry Commission jobs near Grizedale, such as selling firewood and gardening.

He also said the latter explained why his vehicle was captured several times on numberplate recognition equipment at Grizedale at around the time of other alleged thefts.