AS crime capers go, it was not exactly the great rock'n'roll swindle.

But when rock band The Revillos had thousands of pounds worth of musical equipment stolen from their van following a gig in the North-East recently, it looked like the end of the road for the 1970s punk outfit.

Fortunately, police recovered the gear, which included vintage guitars, drums and hundreds of promotional T-shirts, in an abandoned van the next day.

The theft took place at about 4am last Sunday, when the band's tour van was broken into in the car park of the Holiday Inn at the Wolviston Service Station, next to the A19 in Teesside.

The veteran punk rockers had been performing with fellow 1970s legends The Damned at Durham University on Saturday night.

The band's equipment was recovered after a local resident notified police in Sunderland about an abandoned van in Hemming Street in the city.

The Revillos formed in Edinburgh in the 1970s and had a string of hits in the UK and US, touring with the likes of The Ramones.