A pair of cleaners were caught red-handed pilfering from passengers' luggage at an airport, police said today.

Covert cameras caught Anthony Currant and Abul Hussain, both cleaners at Luton Airport, opening bags and stealing from them as they travelled along a luggage belt before getting to the main carousel.

Bedfordshire Police said Currant, 65, of Bolingbroke Road, Luton, and Hussain, 30, of Claremont Road in the town, were both handed custodial sentences after each admitting six counts of theft by an employee.

Currant was sentenced to six months in jail last Friday at Luton Crown Court, and Hussain was given three months at an earlier hearing, police said.

A spokesman said covert footage showed the men rifling through passengers' bags as they passed through an enclosed room on the luggage belt.

The pair were caught in a police sting in February, after the hidden cameras were put in the room where the belt carousel passes through with bags from inbound flights.