A BURGLAR on an electronic tag has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years for stealing a pair of net curtains.

David Steele, who was on a curfew order at the time of the burglary, was told he would have faced a stiffer sentence if the young, single mother in the house had been disturbed.

The 20-year-old, fuelled on three litres of cider and cannabis, left fingerprints on the inside of the window which could only have got there from the outside if he was a contortionist, the judge said.

Peter Brooke, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court that Steele, of Livingstone Road, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, had been found guilty of the burglary at an earlier hearing.

Jonathan Walker, mitigating, said his client didn't have a history of house burglary, but had served time for aggravated vehicle taking and other motoring offences.

He said: "It was alcohol that was the catalyst for entry into this house - he is not a career burglar. He embarked on drink-fuelled idiocy and he recollects very little of the night concerned."

Steele broke into the house in Coronation Avenue on the night of September 27, last year, and stole a pair of net curtains while young mother Isatu Barrie and her two young children, aged four and one, were asleep upstairs.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough Judge Peter Fox said: "I hope you are beginning to come to your senses. I see you have told your probation officer a bit more about what happened the night you removed the curtains from the window."