TWO Brierley Hill men who raided the home of an 83-year-old widow and stole treasured jewellery valued at £1,200, have both been jailed for eight months.

Ioan Varga and Vasile Botu who had travelled to the United Kingdom to try and find work, shattered a window to gain access to the semi-detached property.

But fortunately, said Judge Michael Dudley, they were arrested a short time after the break-in and all the stolen property was recovered by police.

The judge said the delay in obtaining employment had clearly left the two men with financial problems and that was when they decided to carry out the raid.

The jewellery, he added at Wolverhampton Crown Court, was clearly taken to sell for cash in a bid to ease their problems.

Varga, aged 21, and Botu, a 29-year-old father-of-three, both of High Street, admitted burglary and the judge ruled only an immediate jail term was appropriate for the crime.

Barristers representing the two men said they had been in a state of "desperation" and it was accepted they were behind what was a "deplorable set of circumstances."