A BURGLAR seen breaking into a house in Redcar answered the door when a neighbour knocked on it, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.

The man was returning home with his wife when he saw a pair of legs disappearing through his neighbour's window.

He knocked on the door to alert his neighbour, but the door was opened by the burglar, Anthony Bird, who insisted he lived there.

Bird, 23, fled before the police arrived, but he left behind his mountain bike, on which he had left his fingerprints.

A bike, monkey wrench and a jacket were found in the driveway, said Shaun Dodds, prosecuting.

Bird was arrested a fortnight later and he said that he needed money to buy drugs.

Mr Dodds told the court: "He said he went into the house, seconds later somebody came to the door and he pretended to be the householder."

Robin Turton, defending, said that after six years as a heroin addict Bird was free of drugs and working as a carpet fitter.

Bird, of Lilac Road, Teesville, Middlesbrough, was given a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years after he admitted the break-in, in Crestwood, Redcar, on May 5.

Judge Michael Taylor told him: "I make this plain - if you commit any further offence you will be brought back and I will activate this sentence. I will add to it and I will send you down for five years."