A GRAYS man has been jailed for 18 months after breaking into his grandparents’ home and stealing £8,000 and “a lifetime of sentimental jewellery.”

Ben Hobby, 21, who was of no fixed address at the time of the offences last year, was sent down at Basildon Crown Court yesterday after pleading guilty to the burglary at granddad Lloyd Hobby’s home in Woodside, Grays, while he was away in September.

He was also sentenced for the theft of almost £5,000 in cash and thousands of pounds worth of jewellery from a friend’s home he was staying at in July while homeless, as well as possession of cannabis and cocaine.

Speaking after the hearing Lloyd Hobby, 63, said he felt justice had been served against his grandson.

He said: “With the 18 months he’s got and the three months he’s already been jailed, he’s serving his time for what he did wrong, so I’m fine with that, I don’t want him to do five years or anything, he’s still my grandson.

“This went viral on the internet when it happened because people couldn’t believe someone could do that to their own grandparents.

“I’ve fallen out with my son over it because they back their own kids but they forget what happened to us six months ago when we were destroyed after coming back and being left with nothing.”

Prosecutor Jim Harrison told the court Hobby was homeless when he was staying with friend Terry O’Neill in July, sleeping in Mr O’Neill’s parents’ bedroom while they were on holiday, and falsely claimed a key found on the floor of a car while driving with mutual friend Chloe Reid.

The key in fact belonged to Mr O’Neill’s father Mark, he said, who later returned from holiday to find £4,950 in cash had been stolen, along with a square emerald pendant insured for £2,200, a diamond eternity ring, collectors’ coins and a pair of Armani pants had been stolen.

Later on, he added, Hobby began staying in his father Mark’s shed at the bottom of the garden, as he was not allowed in the house, where his father found a gold bangle resembling that of his father Lloyd Hobby.

Lloyd, who was on holiday, told his son to check the safe in his home as the bangle should be in it.

“He found when he arrived that the back door has been forced,” Mr Harrison said, “and a safe which had been in the property had been stolen.”

Mark then found a holdall full of new clothes in the shed and noticed his son wearing a new Hugo Boss tracksuit, who then left the property when challenged about where he got them, and Lloyd called the police and Hobby was found to be carrying cocaine and cannabis when arrested.

Judge Ian Graham sentenced Hobby to 18 months’ imprisonment for burglary, six months concurrently for theft, two months concurrently for possession of cocaine and one month concurrently for possession of cannabis.

He also ordered the drugs be confiscated and destroyed.

BEN Hobby’s step-brother was sentenced alongside him for possession of stolen goods.

In the dock with Hobby, Ross O’Dell, 22, of Tasker Road, Grays, was ordered to complete 150 hours’ unpaid work within 12 months and pay £250 in prosecution costs as well as a victim surcharge.

After originally giving a different account of events to police as a witness, O’Dell later admitted he was with Hobby in a park in the early hours when Hobby announced he was going to steal a safe from someone who had stolen something from someone he knew.

Judge Ian Graham said: “You were there when he returned with the safe and there when it was broken into.

“Out of that safe, you were given £3,000 and a sovereign ring, and were later given another £400, which appears to be the truth of the situation.

“You have later learned the safe came from the house of his grandparents and £3,360 was found in your bedroom and taken by the police.”

His barrister Allan Compton told the court: “His family were very proud of him before this incident.”