A teenage burglar has been jailed after he targeted homes one of Exeter's most exclusive areas.
Daniel Brown had just turned 18 and was living in a hostel for homeless youths when he started breaking into houses in the nearby St Leonard's district of the city.
He had a heavy cannabis addiction and broke into five homes because he was desperate to pay off drug debts.
His victims included doctors and a businessman whose home was looted while he was away on a foreign trip, Exeter Crown Court was told.
He was caught when he left his DNA on a patio door and was seen on CCTV changing stolen Euros and Danish Kroner at a bureau de change in Sidwell Street.
Brown, 18, of Commercial Road, Exeter, admitted burglary, attempted burglary, handling, and possession of cannabis and asked for three further burglaries to be considered.
He was jailed for 14 months by Judge Phillip Wassall, who told him: "You committed a series of burglaries and handled some goods from a burglary, all in the same residential area of Exeter where there are valuable houses which you saw as easy pickings."
Janice Eagles, prosecuting, said the owner of a house in East Grove Road returned from a trip abroad in December to find cupboards had been pulled open and later discovered £7,000 of valuables and foreign currency had been stolen.
They included £2,000 watches which he and his wife had both received as 21st birthday presents, other jewellery, and cash. A receipt with his name was found at Brown's bedsit and he was identified as having changed the money within minutes of the burglary.
He was also found with three Maltese coins taken from a house in Trews Weir some months earlier and his DNA was recovered from a patio door at a doctor's home in Matford Avenue after a failed break in.
He later admitted three other burglaries in surrounding streets, in which expensive computer and camera equipment was stolen.
Rupert Taylor, defending, said: "He owed a lot of money for cannabis and was required to commit offences to pay that off and told his partner would be harmed if he did not.
"He involved himself with bad people and they required him to carry out bad and criminal acts. He is only 18 and has a pregnant girlfriend. He has had the good sense to accept what he has done."
