A PROLIFIC burglar who spent a £1,000 a week on cannabis has been warned of the hurt caused by stealing people’s laptop computers.

Robert Richens was jailed for two years and five months at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.

The 20-year-old admitted burgling a student property in Oxford on October 27 and asked for 10 other burglaries, including one of a church, to be taken into consideration. They all took place in Oxford between April 18 and October 7.

Judge Anthony King told him: “Many people, and in particular students, will store upon the computer valuable information which may be the fruit of three years’ hard study and, if you steal it and attempt to sell it on for a few quid, you have ruined a very substantial part of that student’s life.

“The same applies for laptops stolen in private homes.”

Carolyn Oakley, prosecuting, said the occupants of the six-room student house in Museum Road had gone out at 10pm and returned at about 2am to find the laptop and charger had gone.

She said: “They discovered someone had gained entry through a sash window which was left open.”

Richens, of Badger Lane, Hinksey Hill, was tracked down and officers found the laptop in his room.

A statement from the victim, read out in court, said the computer had a fault when it was returned.

Sophie Murray, defending Richens, said: “This is a young man with considerable difficulties.

“Throughout his short life he has suffered abuse from his parents, suffered from neglect and abandonment.

“He has attempted to self-medicate his trauma through cannabis and, in order to fund that, has turned to a life of crime.

“He tells me he spends £1,000 a week on weed.”

Miss Murray said her client was “a very vulnerable young man” who had been bullied and had self-harmed while in a young offenders’ institution.

As a “third-strike domestic burglar”, Richens was automatically jailed.

Judge King said: “I recognise that you have had difficulties in your life, but I also have to concern myself with the people whose homes you broke into as well as the many other offences you have committed.

“I have a duty to punish those who commit these offences to protect the public.

“In the future, if you continue this way you are going to be spending a large proportion of your life in prison.”