A burglar who targets schools has been told by a judge to stop wasting his life away.

Joseph Perry, 26, was caught after police officers recognised him when he was captured on CCTV during the break-ins.

At Lewes Crown Court Perry, of Lewes Road, Brighton, was jailed for two years and six months after he admitted committing two burglaries and a charge of fraud.

Judge Michael Lawson told Perry, who has 36 previous convictions for dishonesty, including burglary and robbery, that it was time he changed his life before he spent years going in and out of prison.

The judge said: "The trouble is you have been leading this sort of life for a long time. I cannot do anything but send you to prison."

He warned Perry that CCTV cameras were everywhere and because of his previous convictions, it was likely he would be recognised by police officers whenever he was caught on film committing crimes.

He said: "Whilst you are in prison you want to take advice and the help that is being given to you and take a long hard look at things or you are going to waste your life away. There has got to be a different way.

"You have now got the time to think about it."

The court was told that on the night of February 23 Perry broke into Hove Park Upper School and stole a laptop computer from an office.

The computer had been left in the locked room by a teacher.

In June he raided Brighton College in Eastern Road, Brighton. A second-floor bedroom shared by three students was broken into and cash, mobile phones, music equipment and a laptop was stolen.

In March he was caught again on CCTV and identified by police officers who knew him while he was trying to use a bank card stolen from a University of Sussex student's room.

Siobhan Lawson, defending, said: "He realises the inconvenience, distress and consequences of what he has done."