STOLEN loot taken during a raid on a pub was found littered around “half-way house” flats opposite, a court heard today (Friday, December 7).

Raiders took two gaming machines, four flat-screen televisions, a sweet dispenser and bottles of spirits in the burglary at The Foundry in Eston, near Middlesbrough.

Closed circuit television footage showed four intruders in the bar at 1.15am, but they could not be identified from the pictures.

Days later, when police raided the flats complex in nearby West Street, some of the property was uncovered.

Daniel Smith's fingerprints were found on one of the gaming machines and the sweet vending machine was recovered from his flat.

Teesside Crown Court was told that the complex was “something of a half-way house for people living similar chaotic lifestyles”.

Joanne Kidd, mitigating, said 28-year-old Smith had been rocked by a friend's suicide and his brother's death in the summer.

She told the court of a “downward spiral” of drink and drugs which has been tackled since his remand in custody in late-July.

Smith, whose address was given as Rydal Avenue, Grangetown, was jailed for ten months after he admitted handling stolen goods.

He claimed he had been given the sweet machine and took £20 from it, and the gaming machines had been dumped in his flat.

Judge Peter Armstrong told him: “Handling stolen goods so soon after an offence is serious and no-one should be under any illusions about that.

“You got limited rewards for your efforts. You were not receiving them in the sense of being a 'fence' or receiver making large profits out of them.”