Two men who stole nearly £100,000 worth of belongings in a string of burglaries have been jailed for more than nine years.

Ashan Alan Hutson and David Lloyd-Young, both 21, would get taxis to the areas they wanted to commit burglaries, Kingston Crown Court heard.

The duo would find homes with sash windows, force them open to get inside and steal electrical items, silverware, credit cards, cash and jewellery before leaving in the homeowners' vehicle or calling a cab to take them home.

The pair were so confident that on some nights they would target up to seven homes. But they were caught on February 13 after officers spotted a suspicious vehicle parked in Blenkarne Road, Wandsworth, at 4.35am.

Hutson and Lloyd-Young were then seen coming out of a driveway before running from police. Lloyd-Young was arrested and Hutson was found by a police dog hiding in a front garden. Police checks on the suspicious vehicle found it had been stolen and had other stolen items inside, and a search of the pairs' homes found other items stolen in previous burglaries.

After an investigation, the duo were linked to 39 burglaries across London, with the first committed on October 18, 2013.

Other burglaries Hutson and Lloyd-Young were linked to included seven in Wandsworth on December 10, 2013, three in Battersea on December 20, 2013, two in Kingston on December 29, 2013, and one in Barnes and two in the Roehampton area on January 6 this year.

The pair were also connected to eight burglaries in Balham, two in Wandsworth and one in Battersea between late January and mid-February this year.

Hutson, of Barclay Close, Cassidy Road, Fulham, was jailed for three years and three months on December 19 after pleading guilty to 37 burglary offences.

Lloyd-Young, of Longridge Road, Kensington, was sentenced to six years and three months in prison after being found guilty following a trial for conspiracy to commit burglary.

Detective Constable Mike King, from Wandworth's serious acquisitive crime unit, said: "Both of these men made a career out of burgling other peoples home and living off the proceeds of their crime.

"However, what they failed to realise is that the enjoyment of gain from criminal activities is short lived and sooner or later they would be caught and a lengthy jail term waiting for them."