A SERIAL burglar has been jailed for smashing his way into a house and stealing jewellery whilst a woman slept.

Jake Rush has admitted to smashing a woman’s patio window in Basildon and brazenly going through her belongings, all while she was asleep upstairs.

The 24-year-old crook entered the home on September 17 last year, shortly after the woman had come home from working a night shift.

Basildon Crown Court heard that the woman had come home at 9.30pm and gone to bed shortly after.

Cyrus Shroff, prosecuting, said: “At around 11.30pm she had woken up, gone downstairs and found her jewellery box on the sofa, when it was previously in her bedroom, with several items missing.

“She then noticed the patio window was smashed, and a search had been carried out throughout the home.

“In her victim impact statement she describes how she can no longer sleep because of the incident and she “constantly fears waking up and discovering something horrible”.

Rush, who appeared at court wearing a grey jumper and trousers with tattoos on his neck, has also admitted to sending abusive messages to a man in Basildon in March this year.

Mr Shroff told the court Rush had said he would “cut you up” to his victim, and in messages to the victim’s wife, said he would “shoot his head off”.

Judge Ian Graham heard how Rush has committed multiple crimes in the past 11 years, with home burglaries in 2008 and 2010, and non-dwelling burglaries in 2013 and 2016.

Mitigating for Rush, Josef Ribacki said he was “deeply remorseful” and that he was “disgusted” with the way he acted and claimed the messages were a one-off when he lost his temper.

Rush, of Clay Hill Road, Basildon, received for two years and four months in jail for burglary and four months for the two counts of malicious communications, to run consecutively, totalling two years and eight months.