A teenage burglar has been locked up for two years after being caught raiding the home of an elderly couple.

Michael Smith, 19, came face-to-face with his victims as he attempted to steal jewellery from a house in Dunorlan Park, Tunbridge Wells.

Smith could also have had 12 months added for being in breach of a suspended sentence.

But a judge did not add to the sentence after hearing that the two previous burglaries were committed when he was aged 12 and 14.

Judge Philip Statman was also told the father-of-two was a drug addict, whose mother was hooked on heroin.

If it had been his first offence, he said, he could have imposed a drug treatment order.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the burglary happened while Francis Sneddon and his wife Margaret, both 81, were watching television at their home in Dunorlan Park, on August 20.

Mr Sneddon went into his studio and saw Smith. When asked what he was doing there, he replied it was his grandmother’s house.

After Smith had left, the couple discovered that jewellery worth about £4,000 was missing, along with about £80 cash.

Trevor Wright, prosecuting, said police were quickly on the scene and saw Smith throw a box containing the stolen rings into a hedge. They were recovered and returned to the victims.

The youth told officers: “I feel such a mug.” Asked why he had done it, he replied: “It’s the heroin.”

Smith, of School Rise, Tunbridge Wells, admitted burglary and asked for four other offences to be taken into consideration.

John Godfrey, defending, said Smith came from a troubled background and had been a drug user since he was eight.

Smith wrote to his victims to apologise, he added.

“The tragedy of it is, he is a bright young man. He is terrified of the position he is in,” he said.

Judge Statman said the burglary had a “profound effect” on its vulnerable victims but said a longer sentence would have punished Smith’s two young children.

He invited the licensing authorities to help Smith with his addiction when released.