A YOUNG south Warwickshire boy now hides all his toys under his bed at night after a teenage burglar broke in while he was sleeping and took property worth £2,000.

And his mother also feels unsafe alone in the house as a result of the night-time raid, Warwick Crown Court has been told.

Just three days before his 18th birthday, Anthony Davis, of Risdale Close, Salford Priors, was sentenced to 18 months detention and training after he pleaded guilty to two charges of burglary and asked for two other offences to be taken into consideration.

Andrew Smith, prosecuting, said that in December last year Davis broke into a house in Pontymister, Gwent, during the night while the Brain family were sleeping.

He escaped with jewellery worth £500, £100 in cash and other property including cigarettes, credit cards, a mobile phone and a jacket.

But fingerprints found in the house were identified as his, and when he was arrested in mid-January he admitted carrying out the burglary.

He told the police he had committed it with his older brother after they had been taking shelter in the back garden, and also admitted a burglary he had carried out earlier in January.

Mr Smith said that on that occasion he broke in at night while the Lindsay family were asleep, and when they got up they found the dining room window had been broken.

Davis had escaped with a PlayStation, games, a video recorder, a digital camera and other items, worth a total of just under £2,000.

The family had not lived there for long, and Trudy Lindsay has said that as a result of the raid she now feels unsafe alone in her own home - and her nine-year-old son hides all his toys under his bed at night 'to keep them safe from burglars'.

Mr Smith said Davis had two previous convictions for house burglaries, but surprisingly Warwickshire youth court last month had made him the subject of a supervision order for two domestic burglaries, despite committing him to the crown court for these offences.

Mike Conry, defending, said the break-ins were all part of a spate of offending in December and January.

He urged the Judge to follow a recommendation in a pre-sentence report on Davis to impose another supervision order 'to allow the good progress which has been made to continue'.

But sentencing Davis, Judge Richard Cole told him: "The rather odd circumstances of this matter are that you appeared before the youth court on March 8 for, among other things, burglary of a dwelling house.

"Although they knew of these matters, the youth justices persisted in sentencing you. It is a pity all matters were not sent to me because it is possible a false hope was created, which should not have been created.

"The offences for which you appear before me cannot be dealt with by anything other than a sentence of immediate custody."