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A student was told “you are going to die” by burglars who had targeted two central Middlesbrough homes in the same night.

Soufian Essa and Tarik Yamel, both 20, had already stolen a handbag from a property on Clough Close in Linthorpe before being disturbed and aiming their sights on another house.

But the student occupiers of that property on Harford Street, Ayresome, had already been the victims of a burglary that night, before Essa and Yamel turned up at around 2.30am on November 2 last year.

Mitigating for both at Teesside Crown Court, Nicole Horton said that the pair had come to the UK from Tunisia as asylum seekers and had been struggling for money.

“While I would never try and condone committing burglaries and shop thefts, many people claiming asylum find themselves in this position," she said.

“They do not receive benefits and are often not entitled to work.

"They get around £30 a week, which they have to exist and support themselves and their families on.”

The court heard on Friday that the duo fled after students at Harford Street heard the pair try the door.

One male student pursued them in a car, said prosecutor David Crook.

He said: “He asked what the two of them had been doing trying their door.

"They both said sorry, before Essa said “have you got any cigarettes or some weed?”

“Essa then put his hand through the car window and tried to grab a torch.

"He told them to go away, but Essa then replied “what you do not like me? You are going to die”.”

The student reversed his car fearing the pair were armed.

Mr Crook read a victim impact statement from one female student, who said she had considered leaving Middlesbrough after the attempted burglary.

The court heard that earlier at around 1.20am, the pair were discovered in a back garden of a house on Clough Close by the occupiers.

After they were disturbed Essa, of Peaton Street, North Ormesby, and Yamel, of no fixed address, fled and left the couple living there to discover that the beading of a rear French window had been taken out and the glass removed.

A handbag had been stolen, emptied and discarded in a nearby wheelie bin.

Both men, who had the proceedings translated into Arabic by an interpreter, had already pleaded guilty to burglary, attempted burglary and affray.

Miss Horton told Recorder Andrew Haslam that there had been a question on immigration documents as to whether Yamel was aged 17 or 20.

Bur Recorder Haslam said: “I am going to sentence you on the basis you are both 20.

“Your actions, carried out as part of a group and at night, have caused your victims considerable anguish and stress.”

He jailed both for 22 months - 16 months for the burglary and six months for the affray to run consecutively.

A 16-month sentence for the attempted burglary will run concurrently.