A PAIR of brothers who again went on a burgling spree while on early release from prison are back behind bars.

Mark and Gary Bulmer were caught red handed after an alert neighbour spotted them acting suspiciously on a residential road in Highworth.

And once they were arrested they admitted to raiding three more homes in Chippenham and two in Royal Wootton Bassett.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how a resident spotted Mark, 23, and Gary, 25, on a residential Highworth road on Wednesday May 31.

After following them briefly on to Henley Drive at about midday he saw they had gone into a back garden so told his partner to call the police.

When officers arrived the pair were still inside the property and after shouting 'police with taser' they found Gary crouching in a cupboard and Mark hiding under a bed.

In his pocket Gary had £715 in cash as well a £750 Pandora charm bracelet, another by Vivienne Westwood along with two necklaces.

When the victim returned to the family home she told officers that a window at the back had been broken and the raiders had made a mess searching the house.

Miss Hingston said the brothers also admitted carrying out six other break ins shortly before the Highworth raid.

They made off with more than £3,000 worth of property from homes in Station View and Vale View, in Royal Woottton Bassett, and in Chippenham three on Greenway Lane and one in Langley Road.

Mark, of no fixed abode, and Gary, of Northampton Street, Swindon, each admitted burglary and asked for six matters to be taken into consideration.

The court heard that both had long histories of house breaking and each stood to be sentenced as 'three-strike' burglars.

Both brothers were last jailed in 2015 with Gary being released in November last year and his brother around the same time.

Lee Mott, for Mark, said that since the pair were remanded in custody their gran had been burgled and they now knew the impact it had on people.

He said that his client was also prepared to write to his victims, or even meet them, to apologise for what he has done.

Suzanne Payne, for Gary, pointed out the raid took place during daytime when the property was unoccupied.

She said he had also been upset after hearing his grandma in tears on the phone after she became a victim and hoped to change his ways.

Jailing them for three years and four months Recorder Nicholas Atkinson QC said: "The courts always take the offence of burglary seriously.

"Very seriously indeed because for the victims of burglary it is almost like a personal physical assault on them."