A Darlington man was starting a prison sentence yesterday after being found guilty of breaching his community punishment order.

Paul Evers, of Gainsborough Court, was made the subject of the order in December last year after pleading guilty to receiving stolen goods, burglary, theft and failing to surrender to custody.

The 30-year-old had failed to comply with his order, however, by not sticking to his contract with the probation service and had only completed 30 of the required 100 hours of unpaid work.

Because he had breached the order, Evers was re-sentenced for the original offences at Darlington Magistrates' Court yesterday.

For burglary, he received a four-month jail term and for the theft he was given a further two months, to run consecutively.

For receiving stolen goods, he was given a two-month prison sentence, to run concurrently.

He will serve six months in total.

The burglary dated back to March 2000 and the crime of receiving stolen goods occurred between January and March 2003.

Robert Willoughby, mitigating, told the court that Evers had stayed out of trouble since May last year and now enjoyed a more settled home life with his partner and their child.

He said: "If my client is sent to prison, I fear he is likely to mix with more sophisticated criminals than himself and is therefore more likely to re-offend after he is released.

"There is also the danger his partner will have to give up her full-time employment. At present, Mr Evers cares for their child while his partner works."

But magistrates said they had no option but to impose a custodial sentence.

Chairwoman of the bench, Maria Waller, told Evers: "You have shown a total disregard to the orders of the court.