Mum-of-one Rebecca Saw, 24, of Green Lane, Swineshead, Boston, was jailed for two years and one month after she admitted burglary and taking a car without authority.


But on Monday her barrister, Graham Huston, urged the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, to substitute a community punishment in place of her jail term, arguing that her troubled personal life - and drug addiction - meant she would be better off getting help in the community.


He said she was 'immature' and suspected to be suffering from Asperger's Syndrome.


He added that Saw, her daughter and her partner had led a 'nomadic existence' before her arrest, staying with friends and living on the streets and that her main motivational desire was to be reunited with her child.


Lord Judge is hearing Saw's case, along with two other senior judges, at London's Criminal Appeal Court, in order to set sentencing guidelines in burglary cases.


The court was told that Saw and another targeted a house on Union Street, Boston, in March 2008 at around 5am.


The victims - a young couple and their baby daughter - were asleep upstairs as the intruders broke in through the kitchen window and stole various items.


Saw and her accomplice also took the keys to the family's car and drove it away, later abandoning it without damage.


Lauren Ingamells, one of the victims, said she was left so anxious by the burglary that she could no longer stay in the house and went to stay with her mother. She and her partner, Stephen Howell, later moved house.


The judges heard that Saw had previous convictions for theft, common assault and for being drunk and disorderly, all of which she received conditional discharges for.


Recognising the wider importance of the case, Lord Judge, sitting with Lord Justice Latham and Lord Justice Hughes, reserved his judgment on Saw's appeal. The court will now give its ruling at an unspecified later date.