A TEENAGER convicted of burgling houses for the fourth time when he was just 18 has been jailed for two years and five months.

Callum Barlow, of Beverley, Toothill , was caught after a woman having a cigarette in the early hours looked out of the window to see intruders in a neighbour’s garden.

His friend Daniel Hall, 19, who ‘fenced’ the stolen goods, has also been jailed for 14 months after his flat was found to be full of property taken in house breaks.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the woman was looking out of the window of her house in Albion Street during the early hours of May 13.

Having seen two people in the garden jumping over fences she called the police, and officers arrived at about 5.15am.

They searched the alleyway behind the houses and found Barlow hiding in a nearby garden, detaining him after he tried to run away across a flat roof.

Officers found the open back door of the house he had been in the garden of and two boxed DVDs in the kitchen and a laptop on the sofa.

They awoke the occupant, who was asleep upstairs, and he told them his wallet and Blackberry were missing.

After taking Barlow to the police station they raided another house in Albion Street which he had a connection to.

There they found Hall with items taken not only from that burglary but also electrical items taken from two others across the town in the preceding few days.

Barlow, now 19, pleaded guilty to burglary and asked for a further eight offences to be taken into consideration.

Hall, of Albion Street, admitted three counts of handling stolen goods.

The court was told that Barlow was first convicted of burglary as a 13-year-old, and then twice when he was 15.

Mike Pulsford, for Barlow, said it was the first time he had committed a burglary since becoming an adult.

He said he had been battling addiction for some time but had recently become a father and hearing the young child on the phone while on remand had affected him.

Tony Bignall, for Hall, said his client had been buying stolen property and selling it on to fund his own drug problem.

Jailing them, Judge Douglas Field told Barlow: “You have a bad record. The law says I must pass a prescribed sentence.

“The latest offence had important aggravating features of being committed in the small hours and the occupant being upstairs. He was relieved of cash, credit cards and electrical items. Apart from your age there is no mitigation that would allow me to depart from my mandatory duty.”

He told Hall: “You pleaded guilty to three counts of handling. The aggravating features here are they are the result local offending and indeed dwelling house burglaries.”