A SECURITY officer was jailed yesterday for stealing almost £130,000 in coins from parking meters.

Bryn Lynas, 47, whose job was to empty meters for the council, was caught with hundreds of pounds in his car after he raided the machines for two years.

Lynas worked for Group 4 Securicor Cash Services when an audit revealed that tens of thousands of pounds was missing from meters in the Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council area.

He was arrested at his works depot in Thornaby, near Stockton, and he immediately confessed to taking the money, said Brian Hurst, prosecuting at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Lynas told investigators: "I've got a bag full of money on my back seat."

They found £528 in silver and £1 coins stuffed in the footwell of his Renault Megane car.

A film was shown in court from a spy camera hidden in Lynas' van which showed him forcing open cash boxes with a screwdriver and taking the money.

His partner Susan Shaw, also 47, was arrested for allegedly receiving £23,655 from him, but charges were later dropped.

She said he told her: "I've had a good month" and thought he meant from car boot sales.

The couple lived an extravagant lifestyle with three cars, a new Fiat Punto, the Megane and a Mini with Union flag door panels.

Lynas claimed that he threw some of the money away out of guilt, said David Lamb, mitigating.

Lynas also claimed the total he stole was £4,000 less than alleged - that issue will be determined at a proceeds-of-crime confiscation hearing later this year.

Mr Lamb said: "It was unsophisticated stealing using a screwdriver, and he did not put anyone else under suspicion.

"The bizarre point is the use to which some of the money was put. He threw at least some of that money away because he felt guilty."

Judge Tony Briggs told Lynas: "You were in a position of trust and you grossly abused it over a significant period of time.

"You have done considerable damage to your employers who were entrusted with the collection of this money, and a vast amount of money has actually gone."

Lynas of Alderwood Close, Ormesby, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 21 months after he pleaded guilty to stealing £128,301, between January 2004 and May last year, and also to money laundering.