A YOUNG thief with a criminal record of more than 60 offences thanked a judge after being locked up yesterday.

Sean Doherty's barrister had told Judge Peter Armstrong that a spell behind bars might do the former heroin addict some good.

Judge Armstrong obliged and jailed the 21-year-old for a total of 18 months for a series of thefts and a burglary.

He told Doherty: "You have a substantial record for one so young by reason of your drug addiction problem - offending committed to fund a chaotic heroin habit.

"That is no excuse, of course, but it is some explanation as to why someone like you, who is clearly intelligent and knows how to behave, should be misbehaving in this way

"Various sentences of a community-based nature have been tried in the past, but I am afraid the time has come when the court takes a view that you are either unable or unwilling to comply with them."

Doherty's barrister, Jane Waugh, had earlier described him as "an articulate, intelligent young man with an insight into his problems".

She told Teesside Crown Court that, since he was arrested in February and held in prison on remand, he has taken steps to overcome his drug problem and gone some way to repairing a broken-down relationship with his mother.

Miss Waugh said Doherty, of Hart Lane, Hartlepool, is also being held in the vulnerable prisoner section of the jail to keep him apart from people he has drug debts to.

"He doesn't make excuses for his behaviour," she said.

His most recent crimes included a burglary on February 5 at a house in Bunting Close, Hartlepool, where he stole a handbag, and a theft of fuel cards from a van in the same street.

He also admitted the theft of £178 of toys from Woolworths, in Durham, on November 9 last year, possessing a bladed article and failing to respond to bail, committed while on a community rehabilitation order for theft and burglary.

After he was sentenced, Doherty said: "Thanks for this chance, Your Honour."