Jordan Alexander, 20, of Cavendish Gardens, Pegswood, took items from several vehicles that had been left insecure after previous break-ins.

Ruth Castle, prosecuting, told magistrates at South East Northumberland Law Courts that a number of owners in Cavendish Gardens, Pegswood, and Haydon Road in Ashington had left their cars unlocked after previous break-ins.

She said: "A number of vehicles were left insecure in Cavendish Gardens in April.

"The owners of these cars had had them broken into before and found fixing the cars and the locking systems to be costly, and made the conscious decision to then leave their vehicles insecure.

"On April 27 the owner of a Mercedes Benz that had been left in the street found it had been broken into and a bag worth £2,000, a laptop and personal documents had been stolen which were later recovered."

In May, Alexander went to Haydon Road and Warren Court in Ashington where he broke into a Toyota Rav 4, a BMW and a Mazda MX5, stealing a Sat Nav system and a jacket.

Mrs Castle said: "The injured party had been using her Satellite Navigation system in her BMW, and had removed it when she came to park the vehicle, placing it in the glove box.

"She then left her car insecure and when she returned later she noticed the leather had been ripped and the Satellite Navigation system had been stolen."

When Alexander was arrested, officers found a small bag of white power that was later found to be amphetamine.

Graham Crouth, in mitigation, said: "There is a theme that runs through his record.

"There tends to be periods when he is homeless and he has problems with income and he resorts to stealing from cars to pay for items like food."