PENSNETT thugs wearing balaclavas and wielding kitchen knives terrified a family who they mistakenly believed owed a debt.

The father of the family was told he would be "cut up" unless he produced £1,500 before a slab was used to smash in the front window of his home.

Geoffrey Dann, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court Jamie Griffiths, aged 21 and 20-year-old Andrew Hemmings, were looking for someone known as the "cable man" and they had picked on the wrong property.

He added the two men quickly ran away from the scene after a call was made to police but officers found them hiding nearby and they were arrested.

Mr Dann said: "To say the occupants of this house were put in fear is perhaps an understatement.”

He added Griffiths had also been involved in other offences with 19-year-old Harry Mochan.

They raided a house in Delph Road, Brierley Hill, where Griffiths' father was carrying out some building work with his son, and stole the keys to one of two vehicles parked outside the property.

The car then crashed into railings at a Methodist Church and the vehicle, which was valued at £14,000, was a complete write-off.

Griffiths and Hemmings, both of Swan Street, admitted affray and possessing a bladed article and they were told by Judge Martin Walsh: "The innocent people inside the house were clearly terrified by what you did."

Hemmings was jailed for 15 months for his part in the incident while Griffiths was sent to prison for a total of 27 months.

Griffiths further admitted aggravated vehicle taking and burglary together with Mochan of Blewitt Street, Pensnett.

Mochan also admitted the offences constituted the breach of a suspended prison sentence and he was jailed for a total of 18 months.

Ben Williams, for Griffiths, said he accepted the incident at the house was "extremely unpleasant" adding: "It was the wrong house. It was some sort of drunken delusion."