A burglar involved in a break-in at a house in Heswall has been jailed for 20 months.

Matthew Wallace was a member of a gang which was disturbed after smashing their way into the conservatory at the house in Gayton Lane using a spade stolen from an unlocked shed.

They fled but not before searching the rooms and stealing £200 cash and a presentation jewellery box containing a necklace, said Edmund Haygarth, prosecuting.

The gang of at least three men also took a laptop but they dropped it in the garden as they fled from the home, which the owners had only recently moved into.

Police checking CCTV footage identified a hired Vauxhall Astra used by the intruders to flee and Wallace was found in it later that day in Port Sunlight.

Wallace, aged 25, of Oxton Road, Birkenhead, pleaded guilty to the April 11 burglary last year.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he had been due to appear in court on June 26 but failed to attend and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Wallace admitted breaching his bail conditions.

Sentencing him to 18 months' imprisonment for the burglary with two months consecutively for the bail offence Judge Robert Trevor-Jones said that he had thrown a lot away.

The court heard although it was his first domestic burglary he had 18 previous convictions including seven for commercial burglaries.