A pair of tourists who ran out of money have been jailed for breaking into a house so they could steal a car to drive home.

Jay Toulson and Jack Lawrence had been visiting a friend in Newton Abbot but could not afford the coach fare back to Essex.

They broke into the home of a hospital worker who was woken at 1.30 am by the screeching of tyres as her Ford Focus was driven away at high speed.

The intruders had also stolen her work bag which contained her Torbay Hospital ID card and other vital personal documents.

Toulson and Lawrence were joined by 18-year-old Courtnie Jevans as they drove the car onto the M5 where they were stopped by a police rolling roadblock which left the car damaged beyond repair.

Toulson and Lawrence, both aged 21 and from Dagenham, admitted burglary and aggravated vehicle-taking. Toulson also admitted driving with no insurance or licence.

Both have previous convictions for burglary or robbery.

Toulson was jailed for 30 months and Lawrence for 19 months and both were banned from driving for a year by Recorder Mr Martin Meeke, QC, at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge told them: ‘You entered the home of a single female householder who was asleep upstairs. You took her work bag including her pass for Torbay Hospital. Not surprisingly, she felt insecure as a result of that burglary.

‘You also stole the keys to her car, which you took from her drive and drove with your co-defendants up the M5 to near Bristol, where a stinger device was used to stop you.’

Miss Felicity Payne, prosecuting, said the burglary took place at a house in Salisbury Road, Torquay, in the early hours of March 14, when the victim was awoken by the sound of screeching tyres.

She looked out of the window to see her car being driven off in a cloud of smoke and called the police. They stopped for petrol at a service station on Haldon Hill where they left without paying for £20 petrol.

The Ford was stopped on the M5 near junction 18 when it was boxed in by police cars and a stinger device was used to deflate its tyres.

Mr Alun Williams, for Toulson, said he had turned his back on crime and found work as a roofer and was very angry with himself for having got involved in this impulsive burglary.

Mr Llewellyn Sellick, for Lawrence, said he and Toulson had come to Devon by bus with Jevans to stay with her mother but found themselves stranded after running out of cash.

He said: ‘They did not have the money for the coach home, hence this burglary to steal a car to get home.’