POLICE who raided a man's house looking for stolen goods solved the mystery of an abducted, lifesized plastic sheep.

Appeals had already been made for the return of the four-foot novelty animal, which had been stolen from outside Trawden Furniture, in Colne Lane, Colne.

And it was found amongst £1,758 worth of stolen electrical equipment when officers raided Terrence Alan Graham's home in Walton Street, Colne.

He said he had bought the lifesized sheep from a friend in good faith before realising it was stolen, Burnley magistrates heard.

But after the case, the owner of the shop said she was amazed it had been stolen in the first place, as a "heavy and fat", four foot sheep is not the easiest thing to carry through the streets without being spotted.

Graham, 26, admitted theft of the sheep and burglary at Roy Jowett's electrical shop in Albert Road on November 30 and was bailed until tomorrow afternoon for a pre-sentence report.

John Wilson, prosecuting, said that there was still around £865 worth of missing camera equipment and similar items which had not been recovered as a result of the police raid on the defendant's home.

John Rusius, defending, said his client accepted he knew the sheep was stolen, after reading about its disappearance in a newspaper, and accepted he was guilty of theft by not returning it once he had discovered this.

He said Graham had endured a traumatic upbringing and had developed a drugs problems, in his younger days, which led to him coming before the courts repeatedly.

But Graham had turned his life around before the current pair of offences, the court heard.

He had been hoping to move in with his pregnant partner but had been served with an eviction notice by his landlord, said Mr Lucius.

Graham had managed to secure alternative accommodation but needed a substantial bond payment before he could move in. The defendant had fallen victim to temptation and committed the burglary to fund the bond sum, he added.

After the case, Nora Allison, from Colne, who has worked at the store for 28 years and has owned it for the past eight years, she said:"We sell quite a lot of novelty sheep. They are popular.

"People put them in their garden as ornaments.

"The sheep was kept outside on the car park with a lot of the other ornaments and furniture that we have in stock.

"On the day it was stolen I had popped out for a while my son Stuart was looking after the shop. When I came back I noticed it had gone. I was quite surprised that it had been stolen as it is fairly heavy and fat, not the easiest thing to carry home.

"It's not the first re-production animal we have had stolen, a few years ago we had a plastic pig taken. I think people must like to have them because they are a bit different.

"I'm really pleased that we managed to get the sheep back, it was not cheap and I am quite fond of it."