YouTubers Ally Law and Ryan Taylor tea theft case 'not good use of time'

Ally Law (left) and Ryan Taylor (right) pleaded guilty to abstracting electricity

Two YouTube pranksters will not be prosecuted for allegedly stealing a cup of tea after a judge said it was not "good use of a crown court's time".

Ally Law, 22, and Ryan Taylor, 25, were accused of stealing a "hot beverage of unknown value" at the SnoZone ski slope in Milton Keynes in November 2017.

Aylesbury Crown Court heard the pair hid inside the centre until it closed and then rode a BMX bike on the slopes.

Law and Taylor were instead prosecuted for abstracting electricity.

The YouTubers pleaded guilty to the charge which related to them switching on equipment at the complex.

The pair hid inside the SnoZone ski centre in Milton Keynes until it closed, the court heard

Law and Taylor emerged from their hiding place at about 23:00 GMT and stayed at the indoor ski centre until about 05:00, prosecutor Michael Tanney said.

The electricity used would have amounted to a "considerable cost", he said.

Judge Catherine Tulk said: "I just don't think that this is the correct forum to be giving these two young men the oxygen of publicity."

The judge said her time and the time of three counsel was being used up "just so it can go all over YouTube when they [Law and Taylor] go home tonight".

Law, of Hepworth Close in Southampton, and Taylor, of Lichfield Road in Walsall, were sentenced to carry out 40 hours of unpaid work and the charge for stealing a cup of tea will be left on file.

In March, the YouTubers were ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work after they broke into the Celebrity Big Brother house in Elstree, Hertfordshire, in January 2018.