A HEROIN addict whose life went downhill after the death of his parents has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Peter Haggerty, 24, was part of a team of robbers who went out in a stolen car and grabbed handbags from women in the street.

He was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to two robberies and allowing himself to be carried in a vehicle taken without the owner's consent.

Judge Les Spittle told Haggerty he had considered a longer sentence but gave him credit for his guilty pleas and the efforts he had made while on remand to overcome his drug habit. He was given concurrent three-year sentences for each robbery, and an additional six months for the vehicle offence, all committed in Teesside on January 5.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, told the court he was a passenger in the car, stolen from Thornaby, and did not carry out the muggings, but accepted he was aware the offences were going to be committed. Mr Constantine said: "On each occasion he sat in the back of the car and went through the property.

"He has moved into a league of crime he had not previously been involved in and that is going to result in a lengthy sentence. He quite clearly is expecting to be locked up today. He is realistic."

Judge Spittle told Haggerty: "These were vulnerable targets - women at night, going about their lawful business, isolated, either walking alone or standing at a bus stop.

"One can only imagine the trauma and the terrifying experience it was for them."

Mr Constantine said Haggerty, of Bickersteth Walk, Stockton, committed many of his crimes to feed his addiction to heroin. "To find a young man bereft of both parents in such circumstances is both tragic and very, very rare."