POLICE arrested two men in a night time surveillance operation after a nursery boss complained that his plant stock was being devastated by sneak thieves.

Detectives lay in wait last night at the Heaton Fold nursery - which is run as a training centre for people with learning difficulties.

Det Ch Insp Ron Dewin said: "Things being grown at this site have been systematically disappearing at night for about five weeks so we decided to take some action."

The two men arrested at the nursery in Overdale Drive, Heaton, were due to be interviewed by police today.

Centre manager, Mr Jonathan Greenhalgh, said thousands of pounds of stock had been taken by thieves, and thousands more pounds of damage caused to equipment.

He said the thefts had a serious effect on the centre's workers. He said: "The workers here are people with disabilities and they can't understand why people would want to damage their work. It can be very distressing for them."

The centre helps prepare people for work, by giving them the framework of a working day, including dealing with punctuality, tea breaks and concentration, said Mr Greenhalgh.

"We have had fruit trees, plants and around 60 hanging baskets taken from the centre.

"Some of the hanging baskets had been brought to the centre to be filled by us and we will obviously have to replace those."

The council-run centre is not insured.

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