A thief who stole two parrots worth £3,000 from an amusement park for a prank has been jailed for 14 months. Justin Robertson, 34, clambered over a security gate and took Myrtle and Monty, a breeding pair of macaws from Paultons Park, near Romsey, Hampshire. The birds, with their distinctive red and blue plumage, are a major attraction at the park where they have lived for the last eight years. The pair went missing overnight on January 14 but their disappearance went unnoticed for several hours until their afternoon feeding. Keepers discovered the wires on their steel framed cage had been dislodged and the birds had been taken. Southampton Crown Court heard police studied closed circuit television footage of the raid and spotted four men climbing over a security gate. One of the men seen on the footage was Robertson who was later arrested. Four days later a woman was overheard talking about the missing birds and they were recovered from another man's house. They were returned to the park in good health despite their ordeal. In mitigation, Ian Hope said: 'The macaws were targeted for their value. It was something of a prank, a laugh. 'The best thing which can be said is that they were recovered in good health.' Judge Peter Henry heard Robertson took part in a nighttime raid on an organic farm shop a month later but crashed the car during the getaway while carrying £3,000 worth of meat. Robertson, of Holbury, near Fawley, Hampshire, admitted theft, burglary and three charges of failing to surrender to court. The court heard he has 28 convictions for 69 different offences. Judge Peter Henry told him: 'I don’t accept you are as unsophisticated as you say in your letter to me. 'You played a full part in the theft of these valuable birds which are an attraction at the park for the pleasure of the public. 'You didn’t turn up without planning. It was clearly a planned theft.'