A MASKED raider who confronted a 72-year-old as he slept in the dead of night after breaking into the caravan he lived in, has been jailed for 16 months.

But Sean Drayton won’t have to serve an extra day behind bars because he is currently serving a three-year nine month term for drug dealing.

The 39-year-old assaulted the pensioner after getting into his mobile home and demanding he hand over cash.

But the victim had little to give after £8,000 was stolen from him in a similar raid a month earlier, Swindon Crown Court was told.

And although Drayton was also charged with the earlier offence the Crown dropped the allegation, which he had denied, after he pleaded guilty to the burglary.

John Harris was living in the caravan in the yard at Rayners Breakers at Thornhill, near Royal Wootton Bassett, when the offence took place in November 2010.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, said at 3.40am the dog barked underneath his home and he immediately phoned his landlord because of the raid a month earlier.

“He heard the sound of the caravan door being opened, effectively it being broken into,” she said. “He was aware of two people, he could see a male and female. He said the male grabbed the phone he was using to ring his landlord.

“The male, who was masked in some way, his face was obscured, told him to hand over the money. “Mr Harris kept saying the money had gone in the previous burglary.”

She said Drayton then pushed the pensioner against the cooker and to the floor, leaving him with bruising to ribs and elbow, before fleeing with £20.

Miss Hingston said that the defendant was not arrested until some time after when a witness had come forward to put him in the frame.

Drayton, of Naunton Road, Walcot, admitted burglary. He pleaded not guilty to aggravated burglary, being armed with a knife and the robbery of the same victim a month before.

Last month he was jailed for 45 months at Cardiff Crown Court after he was caught selling heroin on the streets of the Welsh capital.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client had been in custody on the drugs offences since the end of May and used his time inside productively.

He said he was clean of all drugs, including methadone, and had got work as a painter or in the servery.

Mr Ross said though his client had a poor record, the latest offence was out of character as he has no previous for burglary of any sort.

Judge Douglas Field said: “Although only £20 was taken an elderly man of 72 was disturbed in the early hours of the morning by a masked man coming into his bedroom.

“The offence happened in 2010: since then you have been sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, namely 45 months at Cardiff Crown Court.

“Bearing in mind all the circumstances I am going to order your imprisonment to run from today.”