FOR shopkeeper Phillip Holden, the days of leaving doors unlocked and goods on display are long gone.

These days, he has his windows barred and lives in fear of finding his premises broken into. His shop has been burgled 14 times during the past 20 years.

Police have failed to catch the perpetrators, but Mr Holden said he is certain of one thing - when they are caught they should face a prison sentence.

He was responding to recent suggestions by Lord Chancellor Lord Irvine and Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf that first-time burglars should be spared prison to reduce the pressure on overcrowded jails.

Born in Newcastle, Mr Holden has spent 32 years building his business, and his chain of animal medicines and equipment stores, Phillip Holden Rural, has branches in Leyburn and Hawes, in the Yorkshire dales, and Barnard Castle, in County Durham.

Mr Holden said of the suggestion by Lord Woolf, and the support which came from Lord Irvine: "They need to take a long hard look at the problem and see the enormous damage that burglars do to property and to people.

"They are oblivious to the real issue and are absolutely out of touch with how the public feel about it. They need to come and talk to the people who have really suffered.

"Lord Woolf's reasoning, that these burglars should have to do community service, leaves a lot to be desired. I think the people responsible for the damage to my property should be locked up."

Over the years, Mr Holden estimates the break-ins have cost him more than £20,000.

He said: "These offenders empty out the food bags and fill them with goods they know they can get money for.

"The mess and the damage is left for us to clear up. We have bars on the window, and the security doors in the Hawes premises cost about £4,500. I am a victim and feel I have been very hard done by. I often arrive at work and fear the possibility that I have been broken into again."

Mr Holden built up the business with help from his wife Janet and son Adam, 34.

He is active in the community as co-ordinator of the crime prevention group Daleswatch, and in 2002 was named personality of the year by the Farming in Yorkshire magazine.

He said: "Daleswatch is a group set up to record suspicious movements in the area. We need to help as much as we can to catch these people and the judicial system needs to deal with them properly."

Armed burglar avoids prison

A KNIFE-WEILDING burglar who subjected a grandmother to a terrifying ordeal in her own home said he was surprised not to have been sent to jail.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had been warned to expect a sentence of between three and five years for entering Violet Crocker's home armed with a knife.

But to the Crocker family's dismay, he was released into the community, despite being convicted of three charges of burglary, one of them aggravated. The judge took the defendant's dyslexia and the bullying he suffered earlier in his life into account when sentencing.

The final insult for Mrs Crocker, 54, is that the youth lives nearby.

Her seven-year-old granddaughter, who was in the house at the time of the burglary, was so traumatised she now sleeps with the light on.

The teenager was given a two-year supervision order and ordered to be electronically tagged for six months, at the hearing at Durham Crown Court on Friday.

He is now back at his parents' home in Northumberland.

He said: "It was a shock at first because my solicitor told me I should be expecting to get three to five years."

The incident happened in July last year at about 2.45am at Mrs Crocker's semi-detached home. The mum-of-three and husband, John, 54, confronted the teenager, who brandished the knife before they restrained him.

She said: "The law has gone soft on criminals and the victims are the people who pay time and time again."