FAMILIES of three prolific burglars who stole more than £199,000 from homes across Cheshire and Wirral cheered as they were locked up for just two years.

For 10 months Lee Hall, 18, of School Lane, Jordan Davies-Bagley, 18, from Beatrice Avenue, and Joseph Lane, 19, of Juliet Avenue, all of Bebington, roamed the region strategically targeting ‘affluent’ homes.

During the latest of a spate of burglaries, between January 4-6 this year, the teenagers targeted homes in Helsby, Chester and Flintshire stealing more than £30,000 of sentimental belongings.

Appearing in Chester Crown Court on Friday (May 27), the teenagers admitted a total of 105 further offences where they made off with more than £169,500 causing £20,000 of damage during the break-ins.

Over the 10-month spate the youths committed break-ins and stole property from homes across Burton, Neston, Willaston, Helsby, Chester and Flintshire.

The court heard how during the three-day spate the teenagers drove around the area targeting empty houses before forcing entry through backdoors and garages.

During the recent raids the teenagers stole:

Jewellery including a wedding necklace and earring set, photographs, and electrical items from Primrose Lane, Helsby.

Electrical items, including televisions and game consoles and designer goods from Cherrydale Road, Broughton.

Hall and Davies-Bagley also stole a television, laptop and an Audi A4 from a house in Lumley Road, Chester.

Davies-Bagley was also charged with three counts of burglary across Merseyside in December 2010 when he stole more than £60,000 worth of property including Christmas presents.

On the evening of January 4, the owners of a home in Primrose Lane, Helsby returned to find the house ransacked, belongings missing and an axe in the kitchen and a claw hammer in the bedroom.

Hall who admitted to 48 further offences and had no previous convictions to his name, was thought to have started off as a driver before being drawn into the break-ins as they became more frequent and extensive.

While in custody Davies-Bagley was driven around the region to identify the 40 further offences, 31 of which were committed in Cheshire, and Lane admitted 17 additional offences.

Sentencing Hall, Lane and Davies-Bagley to two years each in a young offenders’ institute, The Hon Recorder of Chester Judge Elgan Edwards said they would have received considerably longer sentences if they had not admitted the other offences.

“The fact that young men think that it is acceptable to go and break into people’s homes is extremely worrying.”

Solicitors defending Hall, Davies-Bagley and Lane said they pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, were only young and have unburdened themselves by admitting all of their offences.