A SELF- EMPLOYED taxi driver has been commended by a judge for the part he played in helping the police arrest two men who robbed a service station garage of £1,800.

Keith Hall, 41, of Reagill, near Shap, was dropping off a fare at the Westmorland Motorway Services, at Tebay, when he saw two men wearing balaclavas and carrying baseball bats running towards a white Transit van which they jumped into.

He followed the van for several miles up the M6 motorway and contacted the police on his mobile phone giving officers regular updates on the progress of the vehicle.

At Carlisle Crown Court, Recorder Henry Globe QC said Mr Hall's efforts had played a big part in the men being brought to justice.

"There is no doubt that his actions were part of the way they were apprehended," he said.

Christopher Coyle, 29, and William Berry, 23, both of Glasgow, were jailed for four years when they pleaded guilty to robbery.

The court heard that the men had been driven to Tebay on July 21 this year by an accomplice who has never been traced.

They snatched a bag full of cash being transferred from the petrol station forecourt to the main building, then drove off at high speed.

They were arrested when the van crashed into a wagon at a Penrith truck stop.

In mitigation, Malcolm Dutchman-Smith said the men had been co-erced into carrying out the robbery by a man to whom they owed money for drugs.

"They were not the brains behind the operation," he said.

"They were simply the mugs employed to carry it out."

Mr Hall said: "I had just dropped off a fare when I saw these two fellows running towards me and getting into a van.

They had baseball bats and were wearing balaclavas and it was obvious they were up to no good, so I followed them onto the motorway.

"I rang the police on my mobile and the police told me to stop with them.

I was talking on the mobile phone all the time and telling them where they were.

At a truck stop they crashed into a wagon and then they got out and legged it down the railway line.

One was arrested on the line and the other was found in a feed trailer on an industrial estate."