A TEENAGER is paying the price today after admitting buying two laptops that had been stolen from Chantry High School.The 17-year-old from the Chantry area of Ipswich pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods when he appeared at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court.

A TEENAGER is paying the price today after admitting buying two laptops that had been stolen from Chantry High School.

The 17-year-old from the Chantry area of Ipswich pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods when he appeared at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court.

The youngster, who is training to become a mechanic, had bought both the laptops, worth around £600 each, for £130 from someone he knew.

Dino Barricella, mitigating, said: “He was approached by this person offering him computers at a very cheap price and he believed that they may have been stolen which is why he entered a prompt guilty plea.

“It was committed on the spur of the moment.

“He wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

The laptops the teenager had bought were two of a haul of 15 that were taken from the Mallard Way school between 1am on Tuesday, December 19 and 9am on Thursday, January 4.

The equipment was taken from a classroom and a trolley was used to ferry the laptops across the school field and out through a hole in the fence.

The 17-year-old, who was ordered to complete a three-month action plan and pay £25 towards prosecution costs, was not involved in the theft.