A HOSPICE is moving into the furniture business.

Offenders working under the supervision of the Teesside Probation Service are turning out hand-crafted furniture, which Teesside Hospice shops sell.

The Middlesbrough hospice, which needs to raise a minimum of £2,500 a day to pay running costs, has printed a colour brochure for potential customers and can generally promise delivery within 14 days.

Garden furniture and CD display racks are for sale at the moment, but hand-crafted bedroom furniture will soon be available. The hospice makes 100 per cent profit on each item sold as the non-profit making probation service is able to sell the furniture to the hospice for the price that the wood was bought from timber merchants.