A masked burglar was seen by his victims running through their house before stealing a £12k watch, jewellery and £500 cash.
Steven Lovell, 50, gained access to the seven-bedroomed house in Salford after the family had gone to bed.
Two of the daughters were up talking at around 1.30am in their bedroom when their dad was awoken by his wife who thought someone was in the house.
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When he spoke to his daughter, she told him she had seen someone downstairs running in the hallways with a black mask on, Manchester Crown Court heard.
“He then went downstairs and went to the study area, he saw the safe was open and it had been completely emptied,” prosecutor Harriet Tighe said.
“High value items had been stored in there, including a gold Bulgari watch worth £12,000, a bracelet worth £5,000, cufflinks worth £2,000 and £500 in cash.”
The homeowner later established that Lovell, of Trafford, had gained entry through a small window in the playroom.
The next morning, on September 9 this year, he became aware that silver candlesticks had been moved in the dining room.
It appeared the paraffin lid had been taken off in preparation for the candlesticks to be removed, the court heard.
“The complainant surmised that the defendant didn’t take the items as he must have been disturbed by the complainant asking who was downstairs in the property,” Ms Tighe added.
In a victim personal statement read to the court, speaking on behalf of his family, the man said: “My daughter struggles sleeping and she is scared at night.
“She gets flashbacks about seeing this man in a mask.
“My wife has also been unrelaxed about the whole thing, she is always on edge about the security in the house.
“I also feel very vulnerable to find that someone has been in my house and I’m annoyed about how this man made my family feel and how scared they are.”
Lovell was said to have 40 previous convictions for 80 offences, including eight offences of burglary.
The court heard that on a previous occasion in 2018, he had burgled a house in Broughton and stole high value silver candlesticks.
He was handed six years imprisonment and was on licence for that offence when he committed these offences.
In mitigation, his defence lawyer Rick Holland said his client had ‘precious little mitigation’ and that he had a ‘dreadful’ record.
“There is a problem he had with class A drugs and there are problems with addiction,” he said.
“He has little memory of having committed this particular offence. He was going to visit friends who were fishing in the lake that backs onto this property.
“He was presented with temptation.”
Mr Holland added that his client was living in a hostel following his release from prison, but was ‘wrestling with paranoia’ before becoming homeless.
Sentencing, Judge Rachel Smith said: “it would seem you are a career burglar, Mr Holland observes,
“You are a professional burglary who obtained high value items with a significant detriment to the victims.”
Lovell, of Withington Road, was jailed for 49 months (four years and one month).
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