A burglar who stole bottles containing more than £2,000 in change has been jailed for the first time today.
Daniel Cameron, 21, dropped most of his loot after he was followed in a car by the householder.
The couple who lived in the home were left feeling unsafe and constantly worried.
“This is not how we should have to live,” said the 46-year-old woman who lived in the Middlesbrough home.
She sat bolt upright in bed when she and her 38-year-old partner awoke at about 3am to noise downstairs in their detached house on Harrow Road, Linthorpe.
They went to investigate, deliberately making noise in case, as they suspected, they had burglars.
Prosecutor Harry Hadfield said: “They were right about that.
“Their house was in darkness but the front door was wide open.”
The burglars fled and the couple found that belongings including a laptop and an iPad were missing and items, including a kitchen knife, had been moved.
The man went out in his car to find the culprits on September 25 last year, Teesside Crown Court heard.
He soon saw two lads who ran, leaving the laptop near a parked car.
He found a plastic bottle in which he and his partner had stored £950 to £1,000 in 5p to 50p pieces. It had been cut open.
He discovered another bottle carrying £1,300 worth of £1 and £2 coins on his drive.
Cameron’s fingerprint was found on the laptop and he was arrested the next day. He confessed to the burglary but would not name his accomplice.
The female householder said in a statement that the burglary massively affected the couple.
She described sleepless nights and fears of getting up in the night and hearing people downstairs.
“Even now I refuse to stay in the house on my own on a night,” she added.
Cameron, of Longford Street, Middlesbrough, admitted his first burglary.
He had four previous offences and was under a conditional discharge at the time for theft.
Nigel Soppitt, defending, said Cameron had vague memories of his irrational behaviour as he had been drinking and been given some mystery tablets.
“He said he wasn’t thinking about anything,” added Mr Soppitt.
“It’s not a comfort at all to the householder that he was in a state of serious intoxication.
“It’s not the sort of thing he does generally. The tablets seems to have had a fairly powerful effect on him.”
He said Cameron felt “absolute contrition”, though he expressed it in “industrial” language.
Cameron had experienced literacy and learning difficulties and problems expressing his feelings.
Since the burglary he stopped using cannabis, almost stopped drinking and abided by a court order.
Judge John Walford said the courts treated burglaries seriously as they profoundly affected people.
“It makes them feel unsafe, insecure and anxious, and that’s what’s happened here,” he said.
He jailed Cameron for one year and eight months, saying he could not suspend the sentence because he had to think about the victims of this and other burglaries.
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