The BBC's Kevin Bocquet: "He used the money to pay off debts"

Barry Daly, 43, from Crewe, Cheshire, had admitted stealing four locomotives, six passenger coaches, 30 wagons and three breakdown coaches.

He had also admitted the theft of £42,900 from the Waterman Railway Heritage Trust and the theft of £1,000 from another railway collector.

Barry Daly: Acted as bogus agent

Recorder Quentin Querrelle told Daly at Chester Crown Court: "You were a person who clearly developed a greed for money that was paid to you which was not passed on to those to whom it should have been."

Daly was working as a railway depot supervisor in Crewe when he carried out the thefts between January 1996 and January 1998.

He said he wanted to sell the engines and coaches to railway enthusiasts including Mr Waterman, whose trust preserves trains from the 1950s and 1960s.

Mr Waterman, who is credited with launching the career of Kylie Minogue among others, said the Waterman Railway Heritage Trust began to suspect something was wrong about a year ago when stock for which they paid more than £40,000 never arrived.