A TEENAGER was left cowering in fear inside a wardrobe when criminals swooped on his home, a court has heard.

The 17-year-old was alone at his Headington home when James Gilheaney teamed up with another man to break into the property.

Sentencing on Thursday, Gilheaney’s barrister pleaded with Judge Ian Pringle QC to hand the 35-year-old a suspended sentence so he could continue caring for his family.

But the judge rejected the appeal and jailed Gilheaney for 27 months, adding: “I have no doubt that you care very well for your children and for your wife, and indeed your mother.

“But you are old enough Mr Gilheaney to know that if you behave in a way like this, you will lose your liberty.”

The teenager was startled by a loud knock at the door at about 1.15pm on May 19 last year, prosecutor Gary Venturi said.

He peeked out of the window from upstairs, spotting a man moving away from the house with his face covered.

Banging and crashing then echoed through the home, as well as another loud knock on the window.

The teenager suspected the perpetrators were trying to enter a downstairs bathroom window and called the police.

He rushed to take refuge in a wardrobe, hearing the criminals slipping into the room and scouring it for goods to pinch.

But they fled empty-handed when police arrived, ‘garden-hopping’ before officers caught Gilheaney at the end of the street.

Defence barrister Gordana Turudija-Austin said Gilheaney, who was armed with a crowbar during the break-in, would not have targeted the home if he knew the teenager was there.

The father-of-four, who has been drug-free for the past four years, was in Oxford for a gardening job when he was called on to burgle the property. Gilheaney, of Bradstone Road, Winterbourne, Bristol, admitted burglary with intent to steal and must pay a victim surcharge.