A MAN who burst into a Witney home before threatening the owner to hand over drugs and cash has been given six months to prove himself or face jail.

Stephen Thompson, of Merganser Drive, Bicester, was ‘under pressure’ from drug dealers and it was this duress which led him to carry out the attempted robbery, Oxford Crown Court heard on Thursday.

The 35-year old had already admitted the single count of attempted robbery on his victim at the Wadard's Meadow flat on November 21 2016.

The court heard at his sentencing hearing on Thursday how he had gone to the flat in a failed bid to steal cash and drugs after he was pressured by drug dealers into repaying a drugs debt.

Defending, Giles Newel said that since the incident his client had made efforts to turn his life around, engaging in a number of courses aimed at tackling his offending.

Mr Newel called the incident at the flat a ‘grave error of judgement’ and said that Thompson had since secured a job in which he had been recently promoted and had newly become a father.

Sentencing, Judge Ian Pringle QC said that while he could impose a jail term of up to 30 months he would instead take the ‘exceptional’ course of deferring sentence for six months so that Thompson could prove himself.

He said: “Under duress to serious drug dealers you decided to visit the property of somebody who you knew as somebody who owed you money.

“You tried to get some money to pay your debt, what you did was shocking; no doubt very frightening but at least you abandoned your attempt to rob when you heard a woman’s voice cry out.

“I am not going to pass sentence on you today, I am going to see whether these good signs bear further fruit and sentence you in six months’ time. Maybe Christmas has come early for you Mr Thompson, please take this chance, you will not get another one.”

He will be sentenced on June 18.