Alexander Richardson, 20, of Welburn, along with his co-defendents, accepted the charges of burglary and criminal damage after using a forklift truck to cause the damage at Ward Bros, in Showfield Lane, Malton.

The trio, which also included Eric Bowie, 20, of Alma Street, Sheffield, and David Budden, 20, of Holbeck Hill, Scarborough, appeared at Scarborough Magistrates Court, on Monday.

The men used the forklift, which was left unlocked with the keys in, to overturn two cars parked in the yard and ram it into a number of other trucks and lorries, damaging the grills.

Prosecuting, Michael Blackward, said: “They then broke into the office at the site where more damage was caused. They stole a laptop and CCTV hard drive. They took this to avoid being found out.”

But the laptop was later found at one of the defendant’s homes and the CCTV equipment was abandoned nearby. The police used CCTV footage of the vandalism in an media appeal in which it was first believed the vandals were teenage girls.

The men were yesterday released on unconditional bail and will be sentenced at York Crown Court during the week of December 22.

Speaking after the guilty pleas, Steve Ward, who runs Ward Bros with his wife, Brenda, and brother Dave, said: “They need to be punished and the community needs to see an end to this.

“We have got a fantastic place to live here in Malton and Ryedale and we don’t realise how lucky we are to live in an area where crime is not as rife as it is in other places.”

“We had a fantastic reaction from the local community. A lot of people rang up and wrote to us. It was good to know that people cared and were determined to see that justice was done.”

Ward Bros now faces a bill for £20,000 in uninsured losses following the attack. “We are here with a massive debt and all that anguish. It just couldn’t have come at a more poignant or worse time,” said Mr Ward.