PUBLIC-SPIRITED witnesses twice tipped off police about burglar John George Kinsella's crimes, a court was told yesterday.

Kinsella and an accomplice were breaking into a caf in Middlesbrough after smashing a hole in security shutters when a man phoned police, said Robin Denny, prosecuting.

A month later Kinsella, 32, was shopped again by another alert neighbour after he burgled a house in Granville Road, Middlesbrough, and stole a CD collection.

Kinsella, a convicted burglar for 20 years, was on prison licence, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Yesterday, Kinsella of Egerton Street, Hartlepool, was jailed for three years and 11 months after he pleaded guilty to the December 28 attempted burglary of the Porthole Caf, in Falmouth Street, Middlesbrough; the theft of two mobile phone covers from Woolworths, Hartlepool, on January 10; attempting to pervert the course of public justice by giving his brother's name to police; and also to the January 27 house burglary.