TWOmen snatched a dog tied up outside a shop in Little Hulton because they felt sorry for it, magistrates in Manchester were told.

John Armstrong, aged 22, and John Gorman, aged 39, thought 18-month-old Scooby had looked dishevelled, said their solicitor David O’Reilley.

After driving past the shop in Little Hulton several times, they stopped and then fled with Scooby in the back of their van.

“Scooby had been tied up for a significant amount of time and they decided to take him for his own good”, claimed Mr O’Reilley.

“But they failed to check if the owner had been inside the shop” he added.

The men had the dog for nearly two weeks before the police, with the help of CCTV outside the shop, tracked them down.

Armstrong and Gorman, both of Barlow Street, Worsley, admitted stealing the Papillon/Jack Russell crossbred, valued at £50.

They were each fined £110 and ordered to share costs of £85.

Gorman told the bench “For a man of my age it was pathetic and stupid.

But I genuinely felt sorry for the dog.”

The court heard that Scooby had now been reunited with his owners.