TWO teenagers were jailed for four months yesterday after stealing more than £1,000 from a neighbour's house.

Christopher Slater and Richard Green, both 18 and of Melland Street, Darlington, entered John Ramshaw's house on the same street and stole a mobile phone and electrical goods, South Durham Magistrates Court heard.

Bill Brabban, prosecuting, said the pair, together with two youths, had gone into the property between September 6 and 8 knowing that the owner was away.

Graham Hunsley, in mitigation, said the two youths, who will be dealt with by the town's youth court, had initiated the offence.

He said his clients had only gone into the house after the two other boys had managed to get inside and look around.

"It is unlikely that either of these two Green and Slater would have gone along on the spur of the moment and broken into the property," he said.

He said Slater's past had involved substance abuse and that a custody sentence would be hard for him to handle.

Both defendants pleaded guilty to entering an address on Melland Street as a trespasser and stealing goods worth £1,092.

They were sentenced to four months in a youth offenders institute.