A BRAZEN burglar returned to the scene of her crime and told the victim: "Give me some money and you can have your stuff back."

Vanessa Shellard's offer to 'sell' the stolen goods ended in a doorstep row and threats being made to the stunned householder.

Days later, she went back again with an unknown accomplice and again asked for cash in return for his own belongings, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Judge Howard Crowson jailed Shellard for 20 months and told her: "It is perfectly clear he wasn't going to be fooled into parting with the money - if, indeed, he had any left."

Prosecutor Paul Abrahams said the man's diabetes medication, wallet containing his ID cards and other belongings – worth more than £700 – were stolen when his ground-floor flat in Middlesbrough was ransacked last July.

In an impact statement, the victim told how he suffered from increased anxiety and had trouble sleeping.

He said: "I still worry that these people will come back. I do not want any trouble from them.

"I just want to be able to get on with my life, but I feel frightened every time I hear a knock at the door."

The statement added: "All the property stolen during the burglary is still missing. I have not got any of it back.

"I have lived here for years without any problems, but I no longer feel safe in my own home."

Shellard, whose address on court records is Coniston Road, Stockton, but recently moved to Scarborough for drug treatment, admitted burglary.

Urging the judge to consider a suspended sentence, her lawyer, Graham Silvester, said: "She wants to have the opportunity to organise her life. She is capable of avoiding criminality. She is not a prolific burglar. That is not her modus operandi.

"She apologises for her behaviour. She knew what she was doing, but she was persuaded to become involved because of a drugs debt."

Judge Crowson refused to believe she acted as a look-out because a footprint matching her trainers was found inside the flat.

He told Shellard: "You have a record which shows you have been involved in a good deal of dishonesty over the years.

"The offences may have slowed over the years, but this is your second burglary. Your antecedents and your behaviour in returning later aggravate it.

"The question I am asked to consider is whether on not I can suspend the sentence - the answer is no.

"You have a dreadful record and I do not consider it appropriate to suspend the sentence of a burglar who returned to the victim and added to his misery by seeking to make him pay his own goods."