TWO teenagers who were part of a gang of criminals who raided and trashed a man’s flat are behind bars.

Robbie Lunt, 18, and Corey Harrison, 19, were among four crooks who targeted the flat of Connor Stockdale, who they knew, after the victim had left his Padiham home to watch football with his father.

A television was among the haul taken last October and one of the thieves, captured on CCTV, was seen leaving with it up his jumper, Burnley Crown Court heard.

The hearing was told Mr Stockdale returned to his flat at about 11.45pm to find it had been broken into and the door open. He went in and found the property had been ‘turned upside down’.

Lunt, of Rosegrove Lane, and Harrison, of Cardigan Avenue, both Burnley, admitted burglary and each was sent to custody for 21 months. Both have a record for burglary.

The court was told both defendants made no comment after they were arrested and interviewed. Lunt had claimed he didn’t actually go into the flat.

Nick Dearing, defending both, said Lunt at least regretted that he got involved.

He had burgled his father’s home when he was 15, after the victim confiscated his PlayStation.

Harrison only had one previous conviction, when he was a youth. He seemed to have no motivation.

He was a young man who had no idea of the enormity of what he had got himself into.

Mr Dearing said: “There is nothing stopping him from becoming a productive member of society.”

Passing sentence, Recorder Roderick Carus, QC, told the pair: “You have never made any effort to live productive lives. You have been drifting around, drinking and drugging, an accident waiting to happen in your own lives, lurking around the urban area of Padiham, making no contribution whatsoever.

“You can live your life how you wish, of course, but both of you have committed burglary before, you, Lunt, twice, and if young men don’t realise that it’s a very serious matter, it’s about time they did.”

The judge said the gang had set about ‘gratuitously trashing’ the victim’s home while helping themselves to what they wanted.

He told the pair nobody liked sending anyone to prison, but one of his duties was to protect the public.

Recorder Carus added: “Some people come out having learned a lesson. Let’s hope you two do.”