A holiday-maker watched in horror as a live-feed camera showed two burglars ransacking his village home.
The victim’s security camera at his house in Church Street, Ickleton, near Saffron Walden, was activated by Stuart Driver and Matthew Turner as they broke in around 5pm on August 13 last year.
After receiving a notification on his phone, the victim helplessly watched the burglars enter his home through the kitchen before they went upstairs and stole jewellery.
The victim could do nothing except call police.
The break-in was one of six burglaries committed by the pair in a 24-hour period across the region.
The series of break-ins included two homes in Woodbridge and two others in Hatfield Broad Oak and Takeley in Essex, which saw mobile phones, jewellery and cash stolen.
The pair also targeted another property in Brookhampton Street, Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, when they forced entry through the kitchen window and ransacked the house, pulling things out of drawers and cupboards, before taking jewellery worth around £1,000.
In each incident they escaped on a red motorcycle, which was seen by witnesses, and police also managed to track Driver and Turner’s movements via ‘Find My Phone’ data, fed back from a stolen Motorola mobile phone.
Police said the burglars targeted empty houses in affluent villages across East Anglia in a series of pre-planned break-ins.
Driver, 45, of Thomas Road, Fulbourn, Cambridge, and Turner, 32, of St Matthews Gardens, Cambridge, were found guilty of all burglaries and jailed at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday, March 1.
Turner was jailed for six years while Driver received a three-and-a-half year sentence.
Detective Constable Lisa Bacon, of Cambridgeshire police, said: “This was clearly a pre-planned operation, designed to target empty houses in quiet, affluent villages across the region.
“Turner and Driver managed to make off with a number of items, some very precious to the victims, who, understandably, feel their homes have been violated.
“Thankfully, Driver and Turner were caught soon after their crime stint due to the huge amount of evidence and intelligence gathered.”
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