A TEENAGE burglar sneaked into a neighbour’s home through the loft after a secret passage was created between the attics of the properties.

Nathan Bailey stole a large amount of electrical equipment and money from a television meter, and left the house in Hartlepool ransacked, a court heard yesterday.

There was no obvious sign of entry being forced, but Bailey became a suspect when the homeowner noticed that the hatch at the top of the stairs was open.

She could see light shining through a crack in the wall, and when she looked more closely, realised a breeze block was loose and could be removed to join the houses.

Bailey, 18, admitted the February 14 burglary in Ainderby Walk, and was sent to a young offenders’ institution for two years and five months.

Teesside Crown Court was told the teenager qualified for a statutory minimum three-year sentence under the “three-strike” burglary legislation.

The judge, Recorder Howard Crowson, allowed Bailey credit for his early guilty plea and also took off time for the days he spent behind bars on remand.

Bailey began to cry in the dock as Judge Crowson told him: “It seems to me that had you been older, I would have contemplated an even longer sentence.

“You caused unpleasant damage and took property from the coin box, leaving the window open to deflect suspicion from the fact you had entered through the loft.”

The court heard that Bailey, now of Mainsforth Terrace, Hartlepool, has five convictions for burglary, but qualified for the “three-strike”

rule when he became 18.

Paul Cleaby, mitigating, said the more recent of his client’s raids were at empty houses where he was looking for copper or scrap metal.

He told the judge. “Despite his bad record, there are some encouraging and positive signs.

“When he is engaged with on a one-to-one basis, people see marked improvements in his behaviour. He is not without intellect.”