Three clubbers who had drunk 57 pints between them tried to steal a car to get home.

The friends were stranded in Exeter and decided to break into a car hire firm rather than wait three hours for the first bus home.

Their raid was so incompetent that they not only left empty handed, but two of them had to go straight to hospital after cutting themselves on broken glass.

They sobered up while waiting to be treated in Accident and Emergency and then walked straight to the police station to confess, Exeter Crown Court was told.

They told officers that a third member of their group had taken part in the bungled raid on Europcar in Marsh Barton and he was arrested later.

Stefan Thorrington, 21, of Great Mead, Dunsford, denied burglary at Exeter Crown Court but was convicted.

He was ordered to do 70 hours unpaid community work, put on a weekend curfew for six months and told to pay £200 compensation.

Ian Manser, 22, of St Andrews, Cullompton, and Carl James, 21, of Station Road, Cullompton, admitted the same offence before Exeter magistrates within days of the raid a year ago.

Both received community orders.