A MAN has admitted taking part in a plot to steal a valuable JCB digger but three other men have been acquitted.

Daniel Attwood, 32, of Bacon Close, Southampton, pleaded guilty at the outset of the trial at Southampton Crown Court in which the quartet were accused of conspiring to steal the £48,000 digger in Eastleigh.

He had bail extended pending sentence next month.

Thomas Watts, 29, of Fair Oak Road, Eastleigh, was acquitted on the direction of the judge, and two others, Tomas Galdikas, 33, of Cleethorpes Road, Sholing, and Terry Moody, 49, of Fleming Avenue, North Baddesley, were cleared by jurors.