Three fleeing thieves left a trail of bloody banknotes along a railway line after stealing cash from a ticket machine.

Their capture ended a two-month crime spree at stations between Hastings and Lancing which caused £200,000 damage.

The men, from Eastbourne, were jailed for thefts totalling £2,400 between June 8 and July 28 last year.

Stations along the Sussex coast between Lancing and Collington in Bexhill were targeted.

Richard Lucas, alias Richard Offord, of Midhurst Road, Eastbourne, was jailed for 18 months.

He admitted 20 charges of theft and criminal damage, having a police baton as an offensive weapon and possession of cannabis.

He had left traces of his DNA on several machines after thefts.

Jimmy Finlayson, also of Midhurst Road, Eastbourne, got 10 months and Luke McRae of Madeira Way, Eastbourne was sent down for six months.

Each admitted one count of theft.

The three were caught after a signals worker spotted them acting suspiciously at Pevensey and Westham Station in Pevensey, Eastbourne, and called the police.

They ran off the platform and down the tracks stashing banknotes in fencing as they went before a police dog caught them.

The trio were sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on Monday.

Detective Constable Rob Cager of British Transport Police said: “DNA profiling is an essential tool against the fight against crime, as in this case combined with excellent CCTV images of the offenders.

“Police were able to act very quickly to bring these offenders to justice. I feel that the sentences imposed by the Crown Court reflect the seriousness of this type of crime.”

Last year police launched Operation Taurus to round up the criminals behind a spate of thefts where damage to machines was costing companies large sums of money.

The latest case follows the imprisonment of four Romanian men in March for a series of similar thefts at Burgess Hill, Goring, Durrington, Bexhill, Hampden Park, Plumpton, Moulsecoomb, Wivelsfield, Christ’s Hospital and Arundel.