A TEENAGER who was caught after leaving a trail of footprints in the snow after burgling a toy store has been sentenced to a youth rehabilitation order.

The 17-year-old was caught after police followed the trail to an address in Hadleigh around 160 metres away from the shop which had been broken into.

The youth – who can not be named due to his age – must carry out 80 hours of unpaid work as part of the 12-month supervision order given to him by Bury St Edmunds magistrates.

His accomplice Kane Burton, 20, of Willowcroft Road, Ipswich, was given 16 weeks in custody at an earlier hearing.

The pair admitted burgling Osborn and Williams in Hadleigh High Street on January 14. The hapless thieves were arrested minutes after raiding the store.

At the time of the incident, Burton was on release from prison ‘on licence’ after being sentenced to two years for breaking the leg of his ten-week old son.

Police were called to Osborn and Williams after a member of the public heard the sound of breaking glass. Previously West Suffolk Magistrates’ Court heard when officers arrived, footprints in fresh snow led them to the Old School House on Market Place, Hadleigh, where Burton was living at the time.

Police were let into the property by a man who said he had seen Burton and the teenager, and that they had told him they had committed a burglary.