TWO men stole cash, bank cards and a laptop from a room where people were sleeping, in a house in Newport last month.

Marc Davies, aged 37, and 42-year-old Robert Thomas, took the items in a burglary in Baneswell Courtyard.

Days later, Davies was disturbed while burgling a house in the city’s Llanthewy Road, telling a man who confronted him that he had walked into the wrong house.

He was photographed by one of his victims before he made off.

Both men have lengthy criminal records - including several convictions for domestic burglaries - and jailing each for four years, Judge Patrick Curran said they had previously been subject to “minimum sentencing provisions” which had not worked.

“The only way to protect the public is to make the sentences longer and longer, and that is what is going to happen,” he said.

Davies, of Bassaleg Road, and Thomas, of Ombersley Road, both of Newport, broke into the Baneswell Courtyard house overnight on April 13.

Newport Crown Court was told the front door had not been properly secured.

Several people were sleeping there after a night out, including four in the lounge, from where Davies and Thomas stole a laptop, a bag, £150 cash, and bank cards, which Thomas later used twice to buy cigarettes.

Two days later, Davies broke into the house on Llanthewy Road, where a 65-year-old woman was asleep.

Her granddaughter, who was staying there, came home at 2.25am to find the front door open and a light on.

"She immediately called a neighbour and he came to help," said prosecuting counsel Tony Trigg.

"He walked up to the front door, the light was turned off, and he was confronted by Marc Davies.

"He asked him what he was doing and Davies said he had walked into the wrong house."

After a struggle, the neighbour let go of Davies, who then pushed past the younger woman, causing her to fall.

"She had by then photographed him on her mobile phone. He was identified through the distinctive tattoo on his neck," said Mr Trigg.

Davies and Thomas pleaded guilty to the Baneswell Courtyard burglary, and Davies pleaded guilty to burglary with intent to steal from the Llanthewy Road house.

The court was told by the pair's defence counsels that the only mitigation was those early guilty pleas.

Davies also pleaded guilty to receiving stolen goods - found by police at his home - and was in breach of a community order imposed for a previous offence, while Thomas also pleaded guilty to two charges of committing fraud by false representation, for using the stolen bank card.

Judge Curran ordered that sentences for these offences run concurrently with the four-year burglary terms.