A TEENAGE burglar who carried out a series of house raids while on a suspended sentence for robbery has been jailed.

Sean Berry was spotted smashing his way into two homes on the same morning earlier this year.

And after the 19-year-old was arrested he confessed to breaking into another nine houses and trying to get into another over the past couple of years.

Chris Smyth, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court residents on Marlborough Road saw a man going through a neighbour’s garden gate at about 11.30am on Tuesday March 12. Soon after, they heard the sound of breaking glass and called the police who found a patio window leading to the kitchen had been smashed.

Drawers had been pulled out in a bedroom and about £1,600 worth of jewellery stolen.

About quarter of an hour later officers saw a man matching the description of the intruder in the Lawns and after a short chase detained Berry.

In his pockets they found stolen property as well as a ring which came from another house raid on nearby Greywethers Avenue.

Berry, of Axbridge Close, Park North, admitted two burglaries and asked for nine more and an attempt to be taken into consideration.

In late November last year he was put on a suspended sentence for robbery after threatening a supermarket worker with a knife when he was caught shoplifting.

Martin Wiggins, defending, said his client had been in custody for a long time before the earlier offence and when he was released his drug dealers contacted him.

Although he was no longer using, he had run up a debt in the past and they insisted he pay them back, which is why he turned to burglary.

Judge Douglas Field imposed 18 months for the burglaries and ordered he serve 174 days of the suspended sentence on top.