A PROLIFIC car thief is behind bars for a daring daylight raid at the home of a performance vehicle buff.

Colin Fryett shimmied up a drainpipe and was seen by a passer-by "dangling" half in and half out of a tiny upstairs window.

Inside the house in a well-off part of Middlesbrough, the 27-year-old searched drawers looking for keys to the Audi S3.

The witness - who called police - stood in disbelief as Fryett jumped in the £9,000 motor and sped out of the gated driveway.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday that the sports car almost collided with a bus as it raced out of Linthorpe.

The homeowner returned minutes later and saw police outside of his property and his 2007-plate "pride and joy" missing.

He said in a statement that he had to pay a £150 recovery fee once the vehicle had been found, and now wants to sell it.

"It has been my pride and joy since I bought it, but now I do not feel the same way about it," said the pharmacist.

"I've worked hard to have a nice home and possessions, and I'm annoyed someone has thought it ok to enter and take what they want.

"I'm disgusted someone could break into my house and steal my car so brazenly. I feel as though my home has been violated."

Fryett, of Premier Road, Middlesbrough, admitted burglary, theft, driving while disqualified, and having no insurance.

The court heard that the unemployed father-of-one was last banned from the roads in 2011 for aggravated vehicle taking.

He has 54 offences on a record which prosecutor Emma Atkinson told the court was "littered" with motoring convictions.

"He either takes them or allows himself to be carried in vehicles that have been taken," Miss Atkinson told Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC.

Zoe Passfield, mitigating, said the September 10 offence was "compulsive" when Fryett saw the landing window open.

She said since the thief's mother became a burglary victim, he now has an understanding what effect the crime has on people.

Jailing him for 34 months, Judge Bourne-Arton told Fryett: "You have got a very bad record for dishonesty.

"It was a determined effort because you didn't just sneak in some window on the ground-floor, you had to climb up a drainpipe."