(Image: North Yorkshire Police)
Balaclava-clad raiders woke a North Yorkshire man and held a kitchen knife to his throat at night while they ransacked his home, York Crown Court heard.
The victim had been asleep when Matthew Thomas Williams, 35, and Kyle Philip Smith, then 18, broke into his ground-floor flat late on August 28 last year, said Lauren Smith, prosecuting.
He awoke to find one of his own kitchen knives being held at his throat by one of the balaclava-wearing burglars and had to watch another searching his flat.
In a personal statement, he said: "I genuinely believed I was going to die. I felt completely helpless in what should have been the safety of my own home."
Today Williams is serving six and a half years in prison.
Smith, now 19, kept his liberty after Judge Simon Hickey said his mitigation and the circumstances of the case meant he could take an "exceptional course" of suspending his three-year prison sentence for three years.
Williams and Smith, both of no fixed address, both pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary.
Smith also admitted failure to attend an earlier hearing at York Crown Court.
Williams pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine and cannabis when arrested for the burglary and two shop thefts committed after he was released on bail.
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Ms Smith said when the burglars woke the victim they demanded: "Where are the drugs?"
They got away with the victim's 55-inch television, wallet, bank cards and a bottle of vodka and took his knife with them.
An alert resident living near to the Scarborough flat heard the pair leaving in a transit van which had been stolen some days earlier.
He spotted them discarding the knife and a silver-coloured knife in a wheelie bin and told police.
Officers were also alerted by the victim and the burglars were arrested nearby with the stolen items in the van.
Williams was driving and Smith was in the front passenger seat.
Both had left their DNA on the silver-coloured knife and Williams had left his on a cushion in the flat and the kitchen knife.
The victim said in his personal statement: "I still think about it (the burglary) every day and what could have happened. I feel angry people did this to me."
Barristers for each defendant said their client was not the man with the kitchen knife.
Matthew Thomas Williams and another balaclava clad burglar held a man at knifepoint during a night raid (Image: North Yorkshire Police)
Nick Peacock for Williams said there was a third man involved though the victim only saw two.
The silver-coloured knife had been in the van.
At the time of the raid, Williams was a heavy user of crack cocaine and cocaine and had taken drugs for a long time, te court heard.
Since being remanded following his arrest, he had got drug free and was a "trusted" prisoner with a prison job.
He had mental health problems.
On release he wanted to leave North Yorkshire and live in London with a family member.
Kyle Smith and another balaclava clad burglar held a man at knifepoint during a night raid (Image: North Yorkshire Police)
The judge told Smith: "I think an immediate prison sentence would change your life irrevocably."
Smith's barrister Zarreen Alam-Cheetham said he had no previous convictions.
He had started taking drugs when he was 16 but had now stopped.
He also had mental health problems and had had a difficult childhood.
He had stopped "associating with the wrong crowd", was working with drug rehabilitative, medical and other support services and had not been in trouble with the law since.
After years of waiting, he now had the offer of supported accommodation.
If he were jailed, he would lose all his support and all the progress he had made, said Ms Alam-Cheetham.