A gang of burglars who were caught after they were photographed sitting in a parked car waiting for the owner of a house in Colchester to go out have been jailed for a total of 12 years.

Shortly before the owner of the house in Halstead Road, Colchester, went out she was visited by her daughter who noticed a suspicious car parked outside and took a picture of the registration number, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

She went out at around 5.15pm on December 8 and when she returned 30 minutes later she saw the shadows of two people pass her door and discovered patio doors in the house had been forced open.

She then found that drawers and cupboards throughout the house had been opened and and property worth £2,500 including jewellery belonging to her late mother had been stolen, said Michael Crimp, prosecuting.

Police officers were given the picture of the car seen outside the house and the vehicle was stopped in The Avenue of Remembrance and its five occupants were arrested.

Before the court were Fabian George, 31, Sorin Ene, 24, Petra Gogu, 21, Ghenadie Potlog, 24 and Bogdan Craciun, 23, who admitted the burglary in Halstead Road, Colchester

Ene and George, both of no fixed address, were each jailed for two years and Craciun, also of no fixed address, was jailed for 24 months, with one month to be served consecutively for breach of a conditional discharge.

Gogu, of Bergholt Road, Colchester, who also admitted breach of a suspended sentence for an offences burglary with intent to steal, was jailed for 29 months.

Potlog, of no fixed address, who also admitted being involved in a burglary at Chappel Road, Tiptree was jailed for three years and six months

Mr Crimp said that on November 15 last year the owner of a house in Chappel Road, Tiptree came home from work to find his house had been burgled and musical instruments worth £13,000 had been stolen.

Cameras installed in his home showed three men speaking in a foreign language going through the house.

Mr Crimp said the house owner had collected the instruments over a period of 20 years and had considered moving since the burglary.

Dhaneshwar Sharma and Lucy Ginsberg for the defendants said their client’s had come to the UK from Romania looking for work and had committed the offences for financial reasons.