Hartlepool burglar walked away with TV while neighbour was speaking to policeman

The woman discovered she had been burgled in the early evening when she returned home from a trip to the shops to find that the curtains had been closed and a sofa was jammed against the sitting room door.

The house in Derby Street, Hartlepool, had been ransacked and her TV was missing off the wall, Teesside Crown Court was told.

She was standing on the doorstep giving details to a police officer when Stephen Young, 40, emerged from the house next door carrying her TV, said prosecutor Jenny Haigh.

More of the stolen property was recovered from his home.

Miss Haigh said that the neighbour felt so upset and violated that she moved house.

Young had 32 previous convictions for 49 offences including non-dwelling burglaries, robbery and drugs and eight days before he had been given a community order for trying to steal a CCTV camera.

Stephen Constantine, defending, said that Young had been hit by medical problems and added: ”This was an opportunistic offence because he maintains that the door was open.

”He recognises that he needs some help, and he has already served the equivalent of a six months jail sentence on remand.”

Judge Tim Stead told him: ”At 40 you have a lengthy record of offending including some serious matters, but in fairness to you this is there first time that you have committed a house burglary.

”It’s all the meaner that it was someone you knew and who knew you.”

Young, of Drayton Road, Hartlepool, was jailed for nine months after he pleaded guilty to the September 3 burglary and breach of a community order.

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