A CAREER burglar has been jailed for more than five years for a spate of house raids during which he stole from a bedroom where a child was sleeping.

Robert Michael Oakley, 36, formerly of Hungate, Pickering, in other houses stole a deactivated AK47 rifle and jewellery, including a wedding ring that a deceased mother had left to her daughter, as well as birthday cards, electronic items, financial items and DVDs, said Angus MacDonald, prosecuting.

Oakley was on bail for drug supply charges when he raided seven houses last June and July. He has several previous convictions for burgling houses.

“You are in fact a career burglar,” the Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Batty QC, told Oakley. “You committed what could only be described as a spate of very serious dwelling house burglaries in Scarborough which have caused untold misery to the householders, as burglaries invariably do.”

He jailed him for five years and four months for two burglaries, supplying heroin and cocaine on a social basis, possession of heroin and possession of a Class C drug.

Oakley, of North Marine Road, Scarborough, admitted all the offences.

His previous burglaries include a £5,000 plus raid on a Malton home as well as others in York and Derby.

Andrew Semple, defending, said: “This man has led a life certainly blighted if not wasted by drug use.

“He doesn’t want to continue his life in this fashion.”

While serving a 32-month sentence for the Malton raid, he had made “good progress” in tackling his drug habit.

But on his release from prison, he had lapsed back into drug use because his wife had left him for another man.

Det Con Darrel Temple, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “Oakley’s crimes caused great inconvenience and distress to his victims. The police investigation and subsequent jail sentence handed down at court should send a strong message that such offences will not be tolerated in our area.”

Mr Macdonald said police found the drugs and some stolen items at Oakley’s house.