Andrew and Lee Tobin stole £240 after they burst into a boarded-up ground floor flat belonging to Vikki Fannon.

Teesside Crown Court heard Ms Fannon was at home with a friend when the brothers called at the property late at night and demanded cash.

Andrew Tobin, 27, climbed in the property through a window and demanded £10, before he asked to look inside her handbag.

Lee Tobin, 30, grabbed the bag and took £240 from her before they ran from the flat in Glamis Walk, Hartlepool.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, described the incident as "thuggery".

He told the pair, who both pleaded guilty to committing theft and common assault on May 31: "This incident was thuggery as close to robbery as it can get.

"There's no avoiding prison. You got away with £240 cash. I am prepared to accept it was demanded for a drugs debt. You both have had substantial drug problems, but it is down to you to get rid of them."

Paul Cleasby, mitigating for Andrew Tobin, said earlier that his client had successfully completed a drug rehabilitation programme while on remand in Holme House Prison.

He said he'd had a drug addiction since the age of nine and he now had hopes for the future.

Martina Connolly, mitigating for Lee Tobin, said he had enough experience of the courts to know that it was a mean offence which put him in danger of prison.

Andrew Tobin, of Derwent Street, Hartlepool, was jailed for 15 months and Lee Tobin, of Dunbar Road, Hartlepool, was sentenced to nine months.