AN ASYLUM seeker who burgled a house just weeks after he was released from prison for a similar matter is back behind bars.

Moharam Rahimi made off with cash and jewellery after smashing a window at the flat in Gorse Hill while the occupants were out.

But the 19-year-old Afghan was jailed for a year and warned he faces being thrown out of the country.

Recorder Ian Lawrie said “You are here seeking asylum: you are not doing a very good job of encouraging the authorities to grant you asylum if when at liberty you go around burgling people.

“It is not a very good way to impress people.

“If they take the decision that you are going back to Afghanistan, don’t be surprised. On any view that may be regarded as punishment enough but you are going to have to go to prison.”

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told the court how the victims, a couple from Eritrea, had left their flat on May Close for an hour at lunchtime on Sunday October 24.

When they returned they found a rear window smashed and in the bedroom a suitcase had been opened and about £135 in cash and three gold rings.

The police were called and a footprint was spotted by the broken window which was later found to match the defendant’s trainers.

He was questioned and said he was elsewhere at the time and then told police he had been asleep and a friend may have taken his shoes and committed the break-in.

Rahimi, of Wilcot Avenue, Penhill, pleaded guilty to burglary. The court heard he had been jailed in April last year and can only have been out of prison for 10 weeks when the latest offence took place.

Richard Williams, defending, said his client had been detained by the Home Office and had been served with deportation papers.

He would not be released from custody so could not be considered for any community sentences.

He said he committed the offence, which was opportunistic, to get money to buy drugs as he was a heroin addict.

Since being in custody he said he had stayed off the drugs and hoped to be able to remain in the UK.