A 21-YEAR-OLD who terrified a woman and her teenage daughter by breaking into their home with an accomplice and demanding drugs has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Daniel Phillips was also involved in robbing a teenager of £20 after he and a fellow offender forced their way into the victim's home – the other defendant brandished a piece of wood with screws and razor blades attached to it.
Phillips committed the robbery and the burglary, which he admitted, in the space of two weeks last July.
Prosecutor Chris Lowe told Derby Crown Court yesterday that the woman and her 14-year-old daughter were woken at 1.30am on July 16 by the two men kicking the door – demanding for it to be opened.
Mr Lowe said: "She went downstairs to investigate and told her daughter to hide – she cowered under the bed."
The woman found Phillips and another man, who had climbed in through a window, shouting: "Where's the grow?"
"They suspected wrongly there was a cannabis grow in the property," said Mr Lowe.
The men searched the rooms and the other burglar searched the attic but after finding no drugs they left the house, which was in Granville Avenue, Long Eaton.
Mr Lowe said: "Neighbours heard the disturbance and called the police.
"There was damage to a double-glazed window and the woman and her daughter were terrified by the incident."
Twelve days earlier, just after midnight, Phillips and another man went to Emerdale Court, in Long Eaton, and knocked on the door.
A 19-year-old boy answered the door to them and the men forced their way in, said Mr Lowe.
Phillips' accomplice brandished the modified weapon and demanded money.
The teenager handed over £20 and the two left.
Justin Ablott, in mitigation, said Phillips, of Barker Avenue, Sandiacre, had no previous convictions and had "significantly gone off the rails" for a relatively short period of time.
Mr Ablott said that Phillips had been doing well at college until something had happened, which he did not want to disclose in open court.
Recorder Michael Elsom said the offences were so serious he had to send him to jail immediately but added: "On each occasion you were undoubtedly the person who played the lesser role."
