A Paddington bear statue that was partly ripped off its bench and stolen will be returning “back to the town that loves him so dearly”.
The statue of the fictional Peruvian bear was damaged by two Royal Air Force engineers, who made off with part of it in Newbury, Berkshire, following a night out on 2 March.
Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, both 22 and engineers at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, appeared at Reading Magistrates’ Court in March.
They were ordered to pay £2,725 each towards the costs of repairing the statue and were sentenced to 12-month community orders.
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The repaired and repainted statue will be unveiled in a ceremony on Wednesday at 11.30am on Northbrook Street, Newbury.
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Ben Beardmore-Gray, marketing manager at Newbury Business Improvement District (BID), said: “When the damage was caused, it was a bit of a shock to all of us.
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“Newbury is quite a quiet town. Crime here is not particularly extreme.
“For something so visible to happen – it caught us all off guard.
“We’ve been working very hard behind the scenes for five weeks, basically, to bring Paddington back to the town that loves him so dearly, and we’re delighted that we can announce he’s back on Wednesday.”
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CCTV footage played at Reading Magistrates’ Court showed the engineers approaching the statue before attempting to rip the bear off the bench, then walking away with part of the damaged object.
They carried the statue through the town and into a taxi to their base at RAF Odiham, the court heard.
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District judge Sam Goozee said it was “an act of wanton vandalism”.
The judge added the RAF engineers’ “actions were the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for”.
