DEVIZES burglar Nigel Stickley has narrowly escaped being sent to jail by a judge at Salisbury Crown Court.

Stickley, 20, of Eastleigh Road, Devizes, was before the court on Thursday for sentence having earlier admitted stealing a £150 gold necklace from the bedroom of a sleeping teenage girl.

Judge Robert Pryor told him that but for a change in sentencing guidelines, he would have had no hesitation in imposing a custodial sentence.

Prosecutor Ian Halliday said Stickley reached in through a ground floor bedroom window of a house in Estcourt Road, Devizes, to snatch the jewellery.

He said the necklace had been given to the girl after she had been a bridesmaid and was of great sentimental value to her.

Stickley was caught after police found his fingerprints on a windowsill.

Philip Warren, defending, called it a low level burglary and described it as an opportunistic reach-in theft.

He told the court Stickley was drifting through life. "His life at present has no shape and no direction," said Mr Warren.

The judge directed that Stickley should complete 100 hours' unpaid work under a community order.

He also made him a subject of an 18- month community rehabilitation order.

Stickley was also ordered to pay £150 compensation for the necklace.