A WORCESTER man who twice raided the city university and a Bromsgrove school for computer equipment to finance his drug habit has been jailed for 34 months.

Recorder Martin Butterfield said 36-year-old Steven Cross carried out professional and planned burglaries, stealing property worth thousands.

Cross, of Ombersley Road, Worcester, was traced after he tried to sell on the stolen goods.

He told police he estimated he had obtained £1,000 to fund his heroin habit.

Prosecutor Christopher Gibbons said the first burglary on the Worcester University campus was in October last year.

Cross spotted an insecure window which he used late at night to gain entrance and steal iPads worth £5,500.

Two of them were sold at a city centre money shop for £219 the next day. The pastor of a local church saw one advertised and paid £120 before he realised it was stolen and went to the police.

An investigation was launched and enquiries continued at Aston Fields Middle School in November, where a window had been broken and classrooms and offices raided.

Two laptops worth £800 each were taken as well as small amounts of cash.

The intruder left behind a sample of blood which was traced to Cross.

Mr Gibbons said a second raid of the university resulted in 12 iPads and 16 chargers being taken. Some contained expensive and vital software.

The recorder estimated that the value of computer equipment stolen was nearly £12,000. The burglaries were described as opportunist thefts by someone who had been seen stalking round the building at night.

Cross also admitted the theft of a mobile phone which he said he had found in Pump Street.

The owner claimed he had left it in his car and Cross admitted trying the doors of a line of locked cars.

The court was told of Cross's previous offences which dated back to 1997. He was sentenced to several days custody as a youth offender and was jailed for five years in 2001 for drug offences.

Richard Hull, mitigating, said Cross was hired by a loft conversion firm in 2014 but had to find cash to fund his heroin habit.

Cross was sentenced to 30 months in jail for the burglaries and another four months for driving offences and failure to attend court.