A RUGBY player who stole £4,000 worth of jewellery, including a family wedding ring, from a house on Netherhampton Road has been jailed for 18 months.

Tristan Woodward, 35, who at the time of the incident lived in Salisbury, targeted the home after a day of fundraising for Warminster Rugby Club. A court in Portsmouth heard how he twice visited the house asking for funds before he broke in on October 2 last year when the owners were away.

A trial failed to establish whether Woodward had been genuinely raising sponsorship money but Judge Robert Hill said it was "unusual for people in Salisbury to be canvassed for a club a long way away".

Woodward, from Barley Close, Warminster, smashed his way into the property through the conservatory door stealing jewellery given to the victim from her deceased Greek mother.

In a victim statement read out to the courtroom the family said they were so traumatised following the incident they needed to move home.

Wiltshire Police used CCTV footage to catch Woodward as he was seen the day before the burglary surveying the area.

On the day of the offence he can be seen going back and forth from the burgled address to another property. He was seen in the immediate area a total of 16 times leading up to the time of the burglary at one point he was in the rear garden of a house.

He was later arrested and charged, and found guilty of the offence after a trial at Salisbury Crown Court on September 9.

Crime Investigator George Moncrieff said: “This type of crime affects victims in many ways, victims often no longer feel safe in their own homes and the loss off such sentimental items can be devastating let alone the financial implications.

"The lady was so upset after the burglary that every time she picked something up in her home she wondered whether the offender had touched it. We hope that today’s result will go some way to reassure the victim and act as a deterrent to other would be thieves."