A 17-YEAR-OLD boy with a string of convictions was locked up yesterday after he admitted twice burgling a pensioner's home.

Ashley Simpson broke into the 68-year-old victim's house in Windsor Gardens, Middlesbrough, by breaking down the door after watching the owner leave the property.

Both burglaries happened within a month of each other, Teesside Crown Court was told yesterday.

Police searched the home of Simpson's girlfriend, in the same street, and recovered a ring that was taken from the pensioner.

More items were discovered during another search of a house in Laurel Road, Stockton.

Simpson, of Spring Street, Stockton, admitted two charges of burglary on December 15 and January 13.

Recorder Alistair MacDonald said the teenager had an extensive record that already included other burglary offences.

He told him: "You seem to target elderly people. It is bad enough to be burgled, but to be burgled again is really quite disgraceful.

"Burglary is not just an offence against property but against the person. It causes people the most terrible distress, it causes them to feel violated."

He made Simpson the subject of a detention and training order for 18 months.