A CANCER victim, a honeymooning couple and pensioners in their 80s were among dozens of victims of a criminal gang who were jailed on Friday thanks to an undercover police operation.

Ian Froom, 44, from Westfield Court, Redcar, Glen Milburn, 42, from Commondale Road, Redcar and Richard Copeland, 35, whose address was given as Holme House Road, Stockton pleaded guilty to breaking into 19 homes in the region between June 2014 and February this year.

Their victims included a woman receiving treatment for breast cancer, a couple in their 80s who were so distraught they moved into a care home and a couple who heard their home had been burgled while on honeymoon in India.

Cars, laptops, televisions, jewellery left by late relatives and even children’s money boxes were among items stolen from homes in Yarm, Redcar, New Marske, Kirklevington, South Shields, Hutton Rudby and Scruton.

Their crimes were only stopped when undercover police began a surveillance operation and caught them at a home on Broadway East in Dormanstown, Middlesbrough.

At Teesside Crown Court on Friday, Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said the first property burgled by Copeland was in Yarm, where, in addition to personal items, several shotguns were stolen.

Another home in Yarm had items worth £32,000 taken, including the homeowners' car, while an £80,000 BMW was stolen from a home in Saltburn, along with £9,000 worth of possessions.

One home in New Marske belonged to a NHS worker and his partner.

She had been receiving treatment for breast cancer and when they returned home on New Year’s Day they discovered their home had been ransacked. Passports, driving licences and an encrypted NHS laptop were taken, as well as other items of great sentimental value to the family.

A witness statement read: “These people have taken away large parts of our lives and not even left us with the memories. They’ve left me with the tears of my partner and daughter and the fear of living in our home.”

Very few items were recovered from any of the burglaries.

A Cleveland Police officer found Copeland crouched by a car in the driveway of the Dormanstown property, the court heard.

Milburn and Froome emerged from the house and raised their screwdrivers in a stabbing motion at the officer. They fled on hearing police sirens, but were arrested within hours.

Copeland pleaded guilty to 13 burglaries, Froome to five and Milburn to 14.

The court heard how Copeland, who had 49 other convictions dating back to the late 1990s, had taken part in the burglaries to pay off a drug debt. Milburn, who had more than 50 previous convictions, had been released in from prison in April 2013 and had managed to find work as a delivery driver. However, he began struggling financially and needed money to pay back a loan shark.

Froome was also released from prison in December 2013 and had managed to find work in a garage, but he also began struggling financially when he began gambling and his girlfriend became pregnant.

Milburn and Copeland were jailed for five years each at Teesside Crown Court, while Froome received a sentence of three years and four months.