STOLEN LAGER: Magistrates in Darlington today (Thursday May 9) ordered a 28-year-old man to pay £4.78 compensation after he pleaded guilty to stealing two cans of lager from the Macolls shop on North Road in the town. Robert John Thompson, of Portland Place, Darlington, was caught on CCTV taking the lager and was arrested days later. Mike Clark, mitigating, said Thompson had stolen the lager because he could not afford to pay for it.