Woman confronted by two burglars coming down the stairs with thousands of pounds of her jewellery when she returned to her Leamington home

When a woman returned to her Leamington home and opened the front door she was confronted by two burglars coming down the stairs from her bedroom.

Raiders Anthony Connors and his accomplice ran past the startled woman and made their get-away with a haul of jewellery worth more than £6,000.

And undeterred by that close call, the pair carried out another break-in just three hours later, a judge at Warwick Crown Court has heard.

The second raider was never identified, but Connors (21) of no fixed address, was jailed for three years and nine months after pleading guilty to five charges of burglary.

Prosecutor Maninder Chaggar said that at about 10am on September 26 last year Connors and his accomplice wend down the side of a house in Leamington.

They got inside by smashing a window and carried out an untidy search of the main bedroom from where they stole jewellery worth about £6,600.

But their victim returned home while they were still in the house, and as she opened the front door she saw them coming down the stairs with screwdrivers in their hands.

The two men ran past her and sped away in a silver-coloured Mazda which was on false number plates.

Just three hours later they targeted a house in Coleshill, again breaking in through a rear window, and stole jewellery and cash, but were seen by a neighbour as they were leaving.

Those two burglaries were part of a spate of five break-ins Connors, whose previous convictions had been for shoplifting, had carried out over a three-day period.

Among the other three was one at a house in Stretton-on-Dunsmore where the householder returned from holiday to find her home had been broken into and jewellery taken.

Leila Mezoughi, defending, said: Until this date he remained relatively unknown to the criminal justice system.

“He entered guilty pleas to all counts at his first appearance at this court. He’s not a career burglar, and he expresses remorse.”

But Judge Peter Cooke interjected: “I would accept his remorse more if he had named the other man or helped those people get their property back. Otherwise, expressions of remorse are just words.”

Of the Leamington burglary, Miss Mezoughi said: “While it is awful for the woman to see two males, it is also plain they did not intend her any harm. As soon as they saw her they scarpered like rabbits caught in a headlight.”

She said Connors had previously lived and worked with his father, but lost both his home and his job when his father died 14 months ago, and he had been sleeping rough and had not eaten for a day-and-a-half before he began committing the burglaries.

But the judge observed: “He told the author of the pre-sentence report he did what he did so he could go binge drinking.”

Jailing Connors, Judge Cooke told him: “It is right to say you are a young man, it is right to say you are a man who has previously been only lightly convicted, and it is right to say you are now facing your first experience of the custodial environment at a particularly challenging time.

“But that is pretty much all that can be said for you, apart from the fact that you pleaded guilty in a timely fashion.

“I do not accept you are someone who has manifested any significant degree of remorse. You are feeling sorry, sorry for yourself.

“These offences, committed over a period of three days, were carefully planned.

“In Leamington it is right to say you fled rather than confronting her. But it does not alter the fact that we now have a householder terrified that a confrontation with burglars at her address could have turned worse.

“I have had it urged on me that I should feel sorry for you because of the loss of your father. But I think about the householder who has lost what is perhaps the only item she has to remember her mother by.”