A FOSTER carer has told how discovering two prowlers in her garden has left her so unsettled she is planning to move.

The woman said she no longer feels safe, children are afraid to play outdoors and she is frightened to leave the house.

Details of her anguish emerged at Teesside Crown Court when one of the men arrested for attempted burglary appeared there.

Lee Fenton, 27, admitted trying to break into a shed at the property in Middlesbrough in the early hours of June 22.

He was given a eight-month prison sentence, but walked free from court because he has spent that time behind bars on remand.

In an impact statement, the victim called on him to be given the strongest punishment possible for her torment.

She said the house was having CCTV installed and she and her husband have talked about selling their home of 14 years.

In that time, they have suffered five burglaries or attempts, and she said: "These people have taken away our feeling of safety."

She added: "I feel sick and upset someone has tried to break into my home. It has had a massive impact on our lives.

"If one of the children had seen them or if they had got in, I fear to think what could have happened.

"The children used to play in the back garden, but now they don't. I don't like going out and leaving the house.

"Some people would think an attempt burglary is a nothing crime - no damage caused and nothing stolen. I strongly disagree."

The woman was having a 5am coffee when she saw Fenton in the garden and heard his accomplice trying to get in through a patio door.

Zoe Pasfield, mitigating, said Femton, of Wicklow Street, Middlesbrough, had spent four months behind bars already.

Judge Tony Briggs told him: "If you are back for offences of dishonesty, you will be serving longer and longer.

"You have heard from the victim that when two of you go out prowling around, and I notice you are quite a large, well-built gentleman, and go into the grounds of houses in the effort to steal, if anyone has the misfortune to be watching that in the early hours of the morning, it is very disturbing, particularly if it is the householder."

The co-accused, also a 27-year-old, from Middlesbrough, is expected to be sentenced within the next fortnight.