Four Coventry men have been sentenced for their parts in an aggravated burglary in Leicester Forest East.

Corey Carpenter (19) of Ventnor Close, Macaulay John Ferguson (18) of St Austell Road, Joshua Bolton (19) of Ash Burton Road and Luke Cortney Sealey (22) of March Way were each given 5 years imprisonment at Leicester Crown Court on Thursday July 4, 2013.

They had all pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary at an earlier hearing.

The offence happened at around 11.20am on Friday January 25, 2013 at a property on Forest House Lane.

The men smashed their way into the house through a conservatory window. The occupant who was in the house on the phone to her husband was alerted to the noise and was confronted by one of the men in the hall who threatened her with a hammer.

She ran from the property through the front door with her child but not before sounding the house alarm which caused the men to flee the property empty handed.

Detective Constable Chris Coates, who led the investigation, said:

“This is a great example of a real team effort by all involved and there is no doubt that this contributed to the guilty pleas entered by all four defendants.

“The early stages of the investigation were very labour intensive with officers and staff having to work in poor weather conditions such as searching open fields for discarded items of property in the snow.

“This excellent work certainly paid off as it resulted in within an hour of the incident happening officers managing to track the men to a nearby hotel where they were casually waiting for a taxi to take them back to Coventry.

“This was also as you can imagine a particularly terrifying ordeal for the victim and she and her family are very pleased with this result.