A CAREER criminal who burgled a student's flat has been jailed for two years and five months.

A judge at Newcastle Crown Court heard that repeat offender Steven Lamb, 23, was arrested after forensic scientists found fibres from his jumper on the window frame of the flat in The Forge, Sunderland.

The thief had 29 previous convictions for burglary, the court heard, the first committed when he was 11.

Lamb, of Phalp Street, South Hetton, County Durham, admitted burglary, on May 5, last year.

Andrew Walker, mitigating, said: "He is full of remorse but you cannot escape his bad record."