Two men have been charged with the theft of a boat after they ran out of fuel and had to be rescued by the Oban RNLI lifeboat.

The pair were forced to spend “a wet and cold” night on Creag Island, to the east of Lismore.

They were spotted by a passing boat on Sunday morning (11 June) which began towing the small RIB to safety.

However, both men were suffering from hypothermia, so the skipper of the rescue boat decided to contact the Stornaway Coastguard.

Oban Lifeboat met the two vessels at Maiden Island and took the two men onboard.

They were then taken to shore and placed under the care of waiting paramedics.

Commenting on the rescue, a spokesman for the RNLI Oban lifeboat said: “The men had run out of fuel whilst using a small RIB the previous night. Fortunately they were able to make it ashore on the uninhabited Creag Islands where they spent a wet and cold night before being discovered by another vessel this morning.”

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“Their boat was taken under tow towards Oban, however due to the wet and breezy conditions, together with the ordeal that they had gone through, it was decided to launch Oban Lifeboat to get them back to shore as quickly as possible.”

“Oban Lifeboat met the two vessels at Maiden Island just outside of Oban Bay and took the two men onboard. They were quickly taken back to the lifeboat slip where an ambulance was waiting to check them over,” continued the spokesman.

“Both men appeared to be shaken and were suffering from hypothermia, but should suffer no long lasting effects from their ordeal”.

The men, aged 19 and 21, nwere later charged by police in connection with the alleged theft of the RIB.