A career criminal caught fleeing the Furniture Village store had "all the tool kit of a professional burglary" in his car. Paul Thomas, 54, and an accomplice, stole four lamps form the shop on Portrack Lane just after midnight on May 20.

But he was spotted by a police car which was out on patrol, on Haverton Hill Road in Stockton . Teesside Crown Court heard that Thomas "came racing around the roundabout from Portrack Lane".

Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, said that, "the officer did a U-turn and followed the vehicle. Thomas sped through a red light and the officer put his siren on."

Thomas pulled into a layby, where his passenger ran out of the car. When the officer arrested Thomas, he said that his passenger had fled because "he's a wanted man".

Ms Haigh told the court that Thomas was

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