A BURGLAR who stole two vehicles, valued at £60,000, from a family's Kendal home as they slept has been sent to prison.

Steven Fletcher, 39, helped to break in and steal keys from the Windermere Road property in the dead of night. A £40,000 Range Rover Evoque and £20,000 Kia Sportage were taken from the property, driven south to Lancashire and never seen again.

Carlisle Crown Court heard the victims had been profoundly affected by a crime they discovered at around 5am on May 9 last year.

Fletcher denied both the burglary and stealing the two vehicles. But after a trial he was today found unanimously guilty of the three crimes by a jury who deliberated for less than half an hour.

Damning mobile phone evidence placed Fletcher near both the crime scene and the vehicles after they were snatched. At least one unidentified other person was said to have been involved.

Fletcher, of Newlands Drive, Blackrod, near Bolton, was jailed for three-and-a-half years by Recorder Kevin Grice.

The judge told him: "This was professional stealing of high-powered, expensive vehicles by obtaining their keys through burglary of a dwelling house.

"It was, therefore, a very serious offence indeed."