A CAREER criminal with more than 150 offences on his record is behind bars again for targeting commercial premises close to a town centre.

David Boyce was either part of a pair or a gang caught on CCTV cameras at the scene of two break-ins and one attempt within the space of three days.

The 49-year-old drug addict was picked out each time by police who watched the footage of the February raids in Darlington, Teesside Crown Court was told.

During the first burglary, he forced entry through the roof of the women’s toilets at the Number Twenty 2 bar in Coniscliffe Road at 3.20am.

Boyce stole £700 cash, a lap-top computer and an iPad before fleeing when the alarms went off, prosecutor Shaun Dryden told the court yesterday.

At 2.30am the following day – February 27 – two men were caught on camera trying to get into The Quakerhouse in Mechanics Yard, the court heard.

Mr Dryden said Boyce seemed to have a metal implement, but discarded it when they fled from the scene after damaging padlocks and a security grille.

Camera footage from a dance school in Wooler Street, off North Road, from 12.50am the next day, shows four men in the street outside the premises.

A glass door had been smashed at The Seven Peformance Group studio before £20 in cash was stolen. Boyce was one of the people on the video.

His record was described as “extensive and varied” and includes a five-year prison sentence for a commercial burglary in 1994, said Mr Dryden.

Boyce, of Oxford Street Mews, Darlington, admitted two burglaries and one attempted burglary and was jailed for 12 months by Judge Tony Briggs.

Ben Pegman, mitigating, said he commits crimes – his most recent before the February spate was stealing from cars last August – to fund his drug habit.

Mr Pegman said Boyce had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after finding his landlady murdered, and his offending since increased.

He told Judge Briggs: “He was first on the scene, nothing to do with him. He was arrested and released. Someone was later convicted of that murder.

“That had a profound effect on him. He lost his accommodation, and is struggling to deal with flashbacks. His record has escalated since then.”

Mr Pegman added: “He is nearly 50. He really needs to change, otherwise his whole life will constitute a revolving door of custody and drug use.”