TWO brothers who repeatedly robbed a pensioner and attacked him in his bed were locked up yesterday.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Peter Taylor, 66, was too frightened to report the attacks in his Middlesbrough home.

He told officers that each time, Guy Carling, 27, forced him to hand over money. Carling and his brother, Liam, 18, were high on crack cocaine and alcohol during the incidents, the court was told.

Mr Taylor told police that in the first attack, he woke to find his bedroom curtains pulled back and Guy Carling and another man standing by his bed armed with a hammer and a 3ft piece of wood.

They attacked him on the face and shoulder while laughing loudly, and he fell on the floor to protect himself.

They returned to his house and attacked him on other occasions.

Guy Carling, from Middlesbrough but of no fixed address, was jailed for seven years after he pleaded guilty to three robberies and one attempted robbery in February and March.

Liam Carling, of Mulgrave Road, Middlesbrough, was sent to a young offenders' institution after he pleaded guilty to two robberies.