A BURGLAR who also handled children’s toys intended as Christmas presents after they had been stolen has been jailed.

The items, worth £280, were taken from a locked cupboard in a communal hallway at a block of flats and Anthony Cheswick then sold them to his mother for £70, Oxford Crown Court heard.

The 34-year-old was sentenced on Friday having admitted three burglaries and two counts of handling stolen goods.

The court heard Cheswick, of Thames View, Abingdon, burgled a laptop, a watch, an iPod, a games console and jewellery from a house in Masefield Crescent.

He then broke into a house in Overmead and stole linen, jewellery and electrical items, before breaking into a house in Spring Gardens, where he took jewellery, a laptop, a scanner and Tesco vouchers.

He also admitted handling stolen rings, a bracelet and camera, as well as the stolen toys.

All the offences took place in September and October last year.

Recorder Rabinder Singh said: “The last offence (the toys) is also one of handling stolen goods, but different in nature and concerned some toys valued at about £290 kept in a locked cupboard on a communal landing in the same flats you were also living in. They were being collected as Christmas presents and you had a key and were able to use that to open the cupboard.

“All these offences have been committed in order to fund what has been described as an entrenched drug habit, in particular heroin.”

Cheswick was jailed for 15 months.