Two Romanian men who stole a disabled boy’s wheelchair to sell as scrap metal were found not guilty by magistrates today, because there was no dishonest intent behind the theft.

Gheorghita Stan and Florin Axima were driving around Oxhey Hall looking for scrap metal, when they spotted a wheelchair outside a property on the morning of June 4.

The chair was 17-year-old Jack Benton’s, who was inside his aunt’s Oaklands Avenue house waiting for his lift to West Herts College.

Jack’s father had placed the chair and the boy’s rucksack at the foot of the garden ready for the school bus at about 7.40am.

While the £200 chair was unattended, Mr Stan, a licensed scrap metal collector, asked Mr Axima to take it.

Wearing a high visibility jacket, 36-year-old Mr Axima took the chair from the edge of the property, about 20ft from the front door, near the rubbish bins.

At St Albans Magistrates Court, chair of the bench, Andrew Zucker, said there was no dishonest intent and that the two men had made a "reasonable assumption that the wheelchair had been abandoned".

The property was taken before 8am, which is the reason why the defendants say they did not ask permission to take it, as they did not wish to disturb the occupants of the house.

During the court’s proceedings, a statement was read out from an eye witness who said he saw an eastern European man on the front drive of the Oaklands Avenue property before getting into a white van, which was in a poor condition, and then driving off slowly.

Defence lawyer for Mr Stan, Maria Moody, said it was her client’s "mistaken belief" that the wheelchair had been abandoned.

She said that, as the van was parked and the two men drove away slowly, there is no indication that they were trying to conceal themselves.

Miss Moody added: "The crown has failed to establish the element of dishonesty. In the absence of that there would be no conviction."

However, speaking for the prosecution, Jacqueline Lyon, said that the incident was "dishonest according to the ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people".

Mr Stan, 28, of Williams Street, Grays, in Essex has been collecting scrap metal for one and a half years.

Mr Axima, of Vicarage Square, Grays, in Essex, was Mr Stan’s driver because the scrap collector had been disqualified from driving due to points incurred on his licence from speeding and not wearing a seatbelt.

The chair was sold to a scrap metal export company before the two were arrested on June 7.

Both defence lawyers told the court Mr Stan and Mr Axima tried to retrieve the chair upon finding out it belonged to a young boy.

Mr Axima’s defence lawyer, Rebecca Filletti, said: "This was a mistaken but honest belief that this item had been left out to be thrown away."

Both defendants were found not guilty.

Mr Zucker said it was "clearly very unfortunate that a young teenager’s wheelchair was taken", but that the theft was not dishonest, and the chair was retrieved and returned to its owner.