A BOGUS door-to-door salesman burgled a house after talking his way over the doorstep.

Christopher Scott pretended to be selling windows when he called at the property in Billingham last October.

He priced up the job at £4,700 with a further £2,000 for guttering work when he visited again two weeks later.

While upstairs with he householder, he went into a bedroom and stole her daughter’s iPad before quickly leaving, promising to return in a further fortnight.

Later that evening, the tablet was noticed to be missing, prosecutor Victoria Lamballe told Teesside Crown Court.

Miss Lamballe said inquiries were made with the company he claimed to work for, he had been employed by them some time earlier, but they had ceased trading.

Closed circuit television footage showed 39-year-old Scott going into a doctor’s surgery close to the house, and he was later arrested.

In a statement, the victim told how the crime had put a strain in her relationship with her daughter, and has left her “uncomfortable” answering her door.

“I am worried in case he comes back to cause problems,” she added. “For someone to pretend to be a door-to-door salesman and enter my house is a massive invasion of privacy.”

Scott, 38, of Station Road, Eaglescliffe, near Stockton, admitted burglary and was jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, was told that he has 102 offences on his record – six house break-ins, and 26 for non-domestic burglary.

Nigel Soppitt, mitigating, said: “He is far too old to be doing this sort of thing.

“He can do a good day’s work. There are decent sides to him.

“The main concern of his is to look after his mother, but he can’t do that now.”

Judge Bourne-Arton told Scott: “You have an appalling record. You are a persistent and professional burglar.

“On this occasion, you carried out a mean and despicable offence.”