A JUDGE yesterday branded a burglar "a drug-crazed idiot".

Teesside Crown Court heard that Kevin Coxon, a heroin addict, could not remember raiding a house in Billingham but he admitted doing it because his fingerprints were found.

Judge David Bryant said that it must have been "very distressing for the householders to return home and find that some drug-crazed idiot had burgled their house".

Stephen Robinson, prosecuting, said the house, in Lincoln Crescent, Billingham, was burgled after someone got through a rear lounge window.

Scenes-of-crime officers found Coxon's fingerprints and he was arrested eight days later.

Mr Robinson said: "He said he was a drug-user and he could not remember committing the burglary, but if his fingerprint was there it must have been him."

Richard Bennett, mitigating, said that Coxon, 24, was now drug-free after three months on remand in Holme House prison, Stockton.

Coxon, of Redworth Road, Billingham, was given a two-year rehabilitation order with electronic tagging for 12 weeks to keep him indoors from 7pm to 7am after he pleaded guilty to the July burglary, and stealing 91 DVDs and £200 in cash.

The judge told him that he was facing 18 months in jail if he broke the order, adding: "So if you want to go to prison it's quite easy, you simply go out. If you don't want to go to prison you give up crime and comply with this order."