A man who burgled properties in Shepton Mallet along with three youths, helping themselves to valuable items from a shed, garage and caravan has been sent to prison for 22 weeks.

Duane Robert Morris was part of a gang which deliberately targeted the addresses to steal motocross equipment stored there.

When a witness heard a disturbance going on in the middle of the night they reported the matter to the police and they later found the defendant in the back of a van filled with the stolen property after a pursuit.

The 23-year-old defendant, of Greenditch Avenue, Hartcliffe, Bristol, pleaded guilty that on April 17 at Shepton Mallet, jointly with three others, he entered as a trespasser part of a building, namely a shed, campervan and caravan at an address in Wickham Way and stole motocross equipment.

He also admitted a similar charge on the same date to a joint burglary from a garage at another address in the town where more motocross equipment was stolen when he appeared before Somerset Magistrates, sitting at Yeovil.

Prosecutor Emma Lenanton said that a shed, campervan and caravan belonging to one of the victims was broken into, and during the second break-in a garage was targeted.

“At 1.30am a witness staying at a nearby property heard footsteps on the road and looked out to see two males carrying items in their arms,” she said.

“The police were called and the witness then saw five males running towards a vehicle. Another neighbour had a CCTV camera at the rear of his property which caught the vehicle arriving at the scene along with four or five people running past.

“The police arrived within minutes and noticed some property stacked outside the burgled premises and found the vehicle.

“There was then a 15 minute pursuit ending at Chew Valley and during the journey various items of property were discarded out of the vehicle.”

When the police pulled it over Morris was one of the occupants who was sat in the rear and they were all arrested.

The court heard that the large majority of the stolen items was motocross equipment, which was mostly recovered. The three youths had also previously been dealt with and all were sentenced to referral orders in the youth court.

Defending solicitor Paul Richardson said that the day after these offences were committed the defendant was sent to prison for 50 weeks for unrelated matters, and had he been sentenced for the two burglaries as well then his sentence would not have been significantly different.

He said that Morris suffered with learning difficulties which was behind his impulsive behaviour.

“Things have been very difficult for him this year as his relationship with his mother had broken down and he was associating with people who were a very negative influence on him,” he said.

“He was also smoking cannabis excessively which impaired his judgement and he then became involved in these two offences.

“He acknowledges he was the only adult involved in this incident, but age is not always an accurate gauge of mental maturity, and he certainly was not the ringleader and was sat in the rear of the vehicle when the police found them.”

The magistrates told Morris that the burglaries had been “planned and targeted” and it had also been a group action.

They also said he had been under the influence of cannabis at the time and had a history of non-compliance with court orders and had breached every sentence he had been given.

They imposed a custodial sentence of 22 weeks and told the defendant they could find no reason to suspend it. He was also ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge on his release.