AN alert teenager helped track down the man who burgled her grandmother's home, a court was told yesterday.

The day after the raid at a house in Hartlepool, Diane Hope, 16, dialled the number of the stolen mobile phone belonging to her grandmother, Rose Bartle. A man whom she knew answered the call.

He said that he bought it in innocence from Adam Michael Lee, whom detectives proved was the burglar, said Richard Wright, prosecuting.

Lee, 21, said that he was drunk and suffering drug withdrawal symptoms when he spotted an open window at 64-year-old Mrs Bartle's warden-controlled flat. Once inside he saw someone in bed so he stole only a few items.

Jane Waugh, defending, said Lee received summary justice for the raid in Routledge Court, when several young men broke into his home and assaulted him.

Lee, who was serving a Community Rehabilitation Order for dangerous driving, said he was ashamed that his four-year heroin addiction brought him so low. He went voluntarily to the Addictive Behaviour Services and five days before he was due in court he asked Hartlepool Magistrates to remove his bail, which they did.

Lee, of Bruce Crescent, Hartlepool, was jailed for 21 months after he pleaded guilty to the burglary on August 21. His rehabilitation order was revoked.