A THIRD-STRIKE burglar ransacked a pensioner’s home before leaving with a number of his possessions while he was out at a local social club, a court heard.

The 77-year-old victim followed his routine of going out for his usual two pints of beer on the evening of December 1.

But, Durham Crown Court was told that on his return he discovered that the house, in Barwick Street, Easington Colliery, had been entered and untidily searched.

Paul Currer, prosecuting, told the court: “He got back just before 11pm and, to his horror, found the house had been broken into, with his belongings in a mess, leaving him extremely distressed.”

Mr Currer said, by chance, a passing dog walker said earlier in the evening he saw a man carrying a flat screen television in the rear of Barwick Street.

It was reported to police and when they spoke to other local people a man reported having seen two figures behaving “suspiciously” behind a vacant property in the vicinity.

On checking, officers recovered a vacuum cleaner and a bag of tools taken from the burgled house.

Mr Currer said inquiries led police to then search the home of David William Harrison.

A leather-bound prayer book, which may have been mistaken for a wallet, and a man’s wrist watch, both also taken from the pensioner’s house, were retrieved.

Harrison was questioned and maintained he had no knowledge of the recovered items, claiming he never left home that evening.

Four weeks later police received a report of someone entering a house under renovation in nearby Bradley Street.

A compressor and mountain bike removed from the property were recovered from a rear yard near Harrison’s home in Cardiff Street, Easington Colliery.

Harrison, who was on bail amid inquiries into the earlier break-in, subsequently admitted theft of the compressor and mountain bike from the back yard of the house, plus the Barwick Street burglary.

The court heard the 26-year-old has 21 convictions for 27 offences, including two previous domestic burglaries, plus several non-domestic break-ins.

Jane Waugh, mitigating, who handed a reference and letter from Harrison to Judge Robert Adams, said his two earlier house burglaries were when he was aged 15 and 19.

Judge Adams described his as, “regrettably, a persistent offender”, and under the “three-strikes” rules imposed a mandatory three-year sentence, with a one-fifth, or 219-day ‘discount’ for his ‘guilty’ pleas.

The final sentence was two years and 146 days.