Neighbours hailed Simon Moore as a hero when he smashed up a house where suspected burglars were living, a court was told yesterday.

Several went to court to support Moore, 33, who used a crowbar and a brick to smash almost all of the ground floor windows.

They signed a petition to Teesside Magistrates which was read out by his lawyer, announcing: "He is known in the neighbourhood as a kind and quiet person. We feel he had taken the action which we ourselves should have taken, especially as we were unable to gain help from the police."

Andrew McGloin, defending, said that at least five out of six houses in one road were burgled. Moore went to one house to confront the people living there, known drug addicts suspected by the victims to be the burglars.

They taunted him, and one led him to believe he was responsible for a raid on the house of his ex-wife and their children aged nine and 14.

Lynne Roberts-Plowman, prosecuting, told Teesside Magistrates that residents of the attacked house woke to the sound of breaking glass. Police found Moore standing outside holding a crowbar and a bottle of beer.

Moore, a part-time taxi driver, of Midville Walk, Middlesbrough, was given a six-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £150 compensation after pleading guilty to causing £380 criminal damage on July 15.