A scrapyard boss has been arrested after council bins stolen by metal thieves were found on the back of a truck in the Black Country.

Police stopped the truck carrying a white Ford car containing the large bins, which had been crushed to fit inside.

The bins would have been worth hundreds of pounds as scrap and were stolen amid an epidemic of metal thefts blighting the region.

Two men, one in his 40s and the other in his 50s, were held on suspicion of theft after the discovery on Stourbridge Road in Dudley.

It is understood that one of the men arrested was involved in the running of a Black Country scrapyard, or actually owned it.

In another raid, police caught two men red-handed as they tried to steal metal cages from Wilkinson in Dudley town centre.

CCTV operators spotted a white van pulling up by the High Street store. Officers rushed to the scene to find that eight metal cages used for transporting goods had been loaded onto the van.

Two men believed to be in their 30s were arrested and have since been charged.