THE New Year got off to a "flat" start for a battery thief and his accomplice, a court was told.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Dale Bottomley stole camera and camcorder batteries worth £126 from Jessops on Christmas Eve and Kieran Chatburn helped him try and sell them.

And both men started 2004 in custody after sentence was passed.

Bottomley, 24, of Mosley Street, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to theft and was remanded in custody until January 14 for the preparation of pre-sentence reports. Chatburn, 24, of Hamlet Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to assisting in the disposal of the batteries and was sentenced to 30 days in prison.

John Wood, prosecuting, said plain clothes police officers had seen Bottomley and Chatburn on King Street and they had put a box behind a wall. The officers recovered the box and subsequent inquiries revealed it contained batteries which had been stolen from Jessops.

Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said Bottomley had returned to Blackburn shortly before Christmas after living and working in the Burnley area. He made a claim for benefits in mid-December and expected to have been paid before Christmas.

"Unfortunately that was not the case and he was facing the Christmas period without any money or sustenance," said Mr Church-Taylor.

He said Bottomley bumped into Chatburn after he had stolen the batteries and his role had been to help him try and sell the batteries.

"As you have heard they were not successful and eventually discarded the batteries," he said.