A TEENAGE heroin addict was locked up for three years after a court heard he had twice burgled his mother's restaurant.

William Frederick Smith, 19, took £750 from tills and gaming machines, plus a large quantity of spirits, after smashing a toilet window to gain entry to Pauline's bar and diner, in Seaham, County Durham, in June.

Yesterday, Durham Crown Court was told he caused £700 worth of damage, but left a tell-tale imprint from a training shoe.

He repeated the crime on New Year's Day, following his early release from an intervening nine month sentence for burglary, imposed last July.

Jamie Adams, mitigating, said, following a troubled upbringing, Smith's offending was committed "against a background of an addiction to drugs".

Smith, formerly of North Railway Street, Seaham, admitted two burglary charges and asked for the cash theft to be taken into consideration.