A TEENAGER kept watch while two accomplices stole stone flags from a back yard in Oswaldtwistle.

Blackburn magistrates heard that on another occasion Elliot Boothman picked up the car keys belonging to a friend's dad while he was waiting for her to get ready and later took the car and crashed it.

Boothman, 19, of Brisbane Street, Clayton-le-Moors, pleaded guilty to theft of stone flags belonging to Mark Woods, aggravated vehicle taking, driving while disqualified and without insurance.

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He was sent to a Young Offender Institution for 20 weeks, banned from driving for five years and ordered to pay £150 criminal court charge on his release.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, said the flag theft had been witnessed by a neighbour looking out of a bedroom window who had called police.

The car keys had been stolen from a house in Accrington when Boothman, another male and two females went back while one of the girls got changed.

She had told Boothman to wait outside but when she came down he was sitting in an arm chair.

The following day when the keys and the car were missing she immediately knew Boothman had taken them.

"The car was found in Blackburn Road and there was damage caused by a collision," said Miss Allan.

Paul Huxley, defending, said Boothman hadn't touched a single flag but accepted he was equally as guilty as the other two men.

He said the keys had been left on the arm of the chair and he had simply put them in his pocket.

"When he was walking home he passed the address and clicked the remote locking," said Mr Huxley.

"He doesn't know why he got in and drove the car away."