Travellers jailed for trashing brewery

TWO travellers who wrecked an historic brewery were jailed yesterday.

After parking their caravans in the Thwaites compound in Blackburn, ringleader Thomas Ward, 44, of Aspull Common, Leigh, near Manchester, warned one brewery worker: ‘Twenty grand or the place is ours.’ When the money didn’t materialise, he and three other travellers went on a wrecking spree last May, racking up more than £300,000 in damages and ending 200 years of on-site brewing.

Thomas Ward was jailed for four years and three months. John Ward, 34, of Aspull Common, was jailed for three years and nine months. Patrick Ward, 32, of Aspull Common, remains at large.