THREE men have been charged with conspiracy to steal after an investigation into the theft of hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of farming equipment.

The trio were arrested on Thursday (December 18) after a series of warrants were executed in Avon and Somerset and the Gwent area of Wales.

Eli Isaacs, aged 37, Charlie Hughes, aged 28, and Jack Bowerman, aged 35, were each due to appear before magistrates in Taunton and Yeovil on Friday (December 19).

The arrests of Isaacs, of Standerwick, near Frome, Hughes, from Ilchester, near Yeovil, and Bowerman, who lived in Ebbw Vale, near Merthyr Tydfil, follow the theft of farming equipment from rural areas across the Westcountry and South Wales.

The crimes occurred between March and November of this year, with some incidents believed to have happened in West Somerset.