TWO newspaper deliverers alerted police about the suspicious activities of a pair of youths seen near a doctor's home, a court heard.

It led to the arrest of Michael Thomas Collier, close to a house in Springfield Gardens, Chester-le-Street, which had been broken into.

At Durham Crown Court, Judge Denis Orde praised the newspaper deliverers, William Atkinson and Kelly Wilson, who work for The Northern Echo's sister series, The Durham Advertiser, for their "public spirited actions" in reporting their suspicions.

The court heard that four gold sovereign coins, two cheque books and other household items were taken.

Tony Davis, prosecuting, said that all but the sovereigns were recovered. Other old coins belonging to the doctor were later retrieved from a house in Spennymoor.

Collier, 21, of Durham Road, Spennymoor, admitted burglary and was jailed for 18 months.

John Walker, mitigating, said Collier's usual "poison" was shoplifting, but he resorted to burglary that day after accompanying a friend who was appearing before magistrates in Chester-le-Street.

Both were heroin addicts on "cold turkey", so Collier took valium instead, a drug with which he was unfamiliar.

Mr Walker said that, under its influence, "he wandered off and committed this spontaneous act of burglary".

The judge said Collier had been before the courts 21 times in four years, mostly for dishonesty offences. He said heroin appeared to have been at the root of his problem.