Teen in £10,000 Cartier watch burglary

The 17-year-old, from Frenchwood, Preston, and a man broke into a family’s home on Frenchwood Knoll on April 19 and stole a haul of goods including a Gucci handbag, Louis Vuitton sunglasses, a £10,000 Cartier watch, briefcases and cash.

His case was adjourned on Tuesday as a debate took place over whether he was 17 or 18, as stated on his passport, but after being shown a birth certificate obtained from Pakistan by the boy’s father, Judge Ian Leeming QC agreed he was 16 at the time of the offences.

The youth, who can’t be named for legal reasons, has brought “great shame” on his family, Preston’s Session House Court was told.

The defendant was friends with the son of the victim.

Lisa Worsley, prosecuting, said: “She returned home at 10.15pm, saw the front bedroom light on and assumed he was still home.

“She heard a loud bang and thought her car had rolled backwards so she ran back to driveway. She saw a dark figure jumping out of the window and onto the garage roof.”

The next morning two officers stopped a taxi the man and boy were travelling in and found the man with a black Gucci bag and Louis Vuitton sunglasses and the boy with the Cartier watch in his pocket.