SHARP-EYED female neighbours came to the rescue when a homeowner was burgled, a court was told yesterday.

The women told police that they recognised suspects who were lurking around the house in Northbourne Road, Stockton, and then helped to pick them out in identification parades.

They saw the men carrying electrical items away from a house, and police arrested them a week later.

One of them, David John Luck, 22, was on prison release licence for burglaries and was sent to jail to continue his sentence, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Stephen Constantine, in mitigation, said Luck had beaten his drug addiction while back behind bars for the equivalent of an eight-month sentence.

Judge Peter Armstrong told Luck: "It was a serious offence and one for which only custody can be justified.

"You have been recalled on your licence period and served the equivalent of eight months. You have voluntarily been detoxified.

"Your difficulty is if you are going to fall back into your old ways when you are released from custody."

Luck of Wrensfield Road, Stockton, was jailed for 15 months after he pleaded guilty to the August 24 burglary.