A man has been jailed for eight months after he burgled a house in Radlett.

Ionel Bahnean, of no fixed address, appeared for sentencing at St Albans Crown Court on Friday, having plead guilty to the charge of burglary at a previous hearing in March. He was also ordered to pay £100 victim surcharge.

Bahnean was arrested at Radlett station on March 7, after a man witnessed his neighbour's house being burgled.

The neighbour called the police and followed the burglar, who did not suspect anything, at a safe distance - keeping the police informed at all times, including what platform and the train the man intended to get on.

This enabled officers to locate and arrest the man. On arrest he was found to be in possession of items from the victim's house including jewellery and an Apple Mac computer.

Hertsmere’s Safer Neighbourhood Inspector, Richard Johnson said: "Thanks to the accurate details given to us by the neighbour, we were able to get officers to the train station, arrest the man and recover all the property stolen.

"Although this was great work from the neighbour, I would like to stress to members of the public that following offenders is not always safe; please ring 999 immediately if you witness a crime giving us as much detail as possible."

Derek Sweeney, Neighbourhood Watch liaison officer, said: "The best way to beat crime is for us to all work together.

"The police need help from members of the public, businesses and other agencies to catch criminals and prevent crime, which is why we advocate people join Neighbourhood Watch.

"February saw us top 80,000 members of Neighbourhood Watch and since this burglary the neighbours have now also signed up to the scheme. We’re pleased to have them involved in the scheme as it’s with the help of people like this, that we catch criminals."

To find a Neighbourhood Watch scheme in your area, please visit www.owl.co.uk/herts and type in your postcode.