Mother shopped son for stealing 50,000 of her property after ticking him off for forgetting her birthday

Susan Taylor knew what she had to do when she realised her wayward teenage son was behind a £50,000 burglary at their home.

The mother of three rang the police and shopped 19-year-old Thomas Bradley.
And yesterday, after seeing him sentenced to 40 weeks in a young offenders' institution, she insisted: 'I've no regrets. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

'In a funny way this will probably turn out for the best. He has written letters saying he is sorry and he seems to be on the right track.'

Bournemouth Crown Court heard that Bradley and his mother had a row after he forgot her 52nd birthday in February. He stormed out and went to stay with a friend.

Four weeks later, medical secretary Mrs Taylor returned from work to find someone had sawn the front door off a wardrobe which hid their household safe and stolen jewels including a £7,500 ring.

The rest of the house had been ransacked and property including a prized £5,000 guitar had been stolen. Crucially, the burglar alarm had been turned off, using a secret code known only to the family.

Mrs Taylor and Bradley's stepfather Peter, a building company director, had no hesitation in giving his name to police, who recovered some of her jewellery.

In court, Bradley pleaded guilty to the burglary. Defence counsel Iain Ross said: 'The enormity of what he has done has only now come home to roost - betraying the love and nurturing his parents gave him.'

Bradley's friend Tariq Khan, 33, a drug addict, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting helping with the break-in and committing two separate burglaries.
After the hearing Mrs Taylor, from Bournemouth, said her son had enjoyed a good upbringing and went to a local Roman Catholic grammar school, where he passed three A-levels.

Tough love: Susan Taylor turned her son in to the police after he burgled her home

But he fell in with the wrong crowd and started smoking cannabis. Mrs Taylor said: 'He is an intelligent lad but he has never been particularly streetwise and has been easily led.

'He never decided what he wanted to do in life. Me and his step-dad are reasonably comfortably off, but I don't think he has realised how much hard work has gone into that. You don't get much out of life sitting on your backside.'

Mrs Taylor, who also has grown-up children of 27 and 29, said: 'Tom became very volatile and unresponsive because he was smoking cannabis. When I had my 52nd birthday and got nothing in the post from him, not even a text message, I got wound up over it.

'He eventually turned up the next day and his attitude was as though it was almost wrong of me to be upset.'

Mrs Taylor said the stress of the affair has affected her health and she had had to give up her job. But she and Tom are now getting on better than they have for years.

She said: 'He has been in prison for three months on remand and he has turned into a nice, likeable young man. I write to him every week and have visited him twice.
'Tom is my son and I love him but I want him to stay in prison until he has sorted himself out.'

Mrs Taylor said that since Bradley has been locked up his girlfriend has given birth to a baby son. Although the pair split up several months ago, she has said she is willing to give him a second chance when he comes out.

Mrs Taylor said: 'I have told him he is very, very lucky. If he messes this up then I will come down on the side of her and the baby and will probably disown him.'