South Yorkshire robber burst into home brandishing a metal bar

Reece Coles broke a window to get into the house in Barnsley, waving the bar and shouting "Give me the f****** money," at 10am, on October 7, last year.

He warned the man not to call the police and left, after taking £30 in cash, but was recognised and arrested later that day

Four days earlier, Coles, 25, and an accomplice, Logan Taylor-Richards, 19, stole a quantity of the drug "spice" from a local dealer while they were at her home, said prosecutor Naakesha Michl, on Friday.

Rebecca Stevens, for Taylor-Richards, of Cooperative Street, Goldthorpe, said he has already served the equivalent of a 16 month sentence for the robbery.

The court heard he has convictions for dishonesty, violence and damage and had served a prison sentence for public disorder.

Judge Roger Thomas QC handed him a three-month sentence and revoked the community order he was on.

He told him: "You're coming out with an entirely clean sheet. If you want to make a fresh start, this is as good a chance as you're going to get."

Richard Canning, mitigating for Coles, said: "There was no physical injury, it could have been a lot more serious. Thankfully it wasn't.

"He is sorry for what he did. He had a drug problem and was trying to find more money for drugs.

"He thinks he can turn his life around if he stays off drugs."

The court heard Coles has a ten-year record of offences including burglary, theft and robbery, and was jailed for nine months in 2018 for affray, and for 20 weeks, in 2019, for burglary and possession of drugs.

The judge told Coles, of Commercial Street, Barnsley: "You have appeared in court quite a lot over these last ten years.

"You seemingly went back immediately to your old bad ways within weeks or days of your release from your last sentence.”

He sentenced Coles to three and half years in prison for the two robberies and making threats to damage property.