A TEENAGE burglar who carried out a series of raids has gone to detention for the first time - for two and a half years.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Gareth Dwyer, 18, had a £10 a day heroin habit and funded it by house and commercial property raids, helping himself to more than £700 by repeatedly thieving from the Lear Corporation in Colne.

Judge Raymond Bennett said he had had a number of "warning shots" and had built an unenviable list of previous convictions in his short life.

He told Dwyer he was a "regular and repetitive burglar."

Dwyer, of Portland Street, Colne, admitted three counts of burglary, two of witness intimidation and asked for six offences to be considered.

The court heard Dwyer burgled Smith and Nephew and two houses and stole repeatedly from the Lear Corporation.

Roger Baldwin, defending, said Dwyer's problem may be the company he kept and one or two of his relatives who encouraged him to offend.

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