A BURGLAR with more 65 offences on his record is back behind bars for a crime-spree across Darlington.

Shane Preston, 27, was caught with a stolen computer tablet stuffed down the left leg of his trousers when police stopped him on a bike.

He had struck at a house in Louisa Street within a minute of his victim leaving, and also took an iPhone, camera, purse, wallet, cash and a spare car key.

Preston forced his way in through a back door at 10.45am on August 1, and left a £250 repair bill, the householder says she simply cannot afford to pay.

In a statement read at Teesside Crown Court, the mother said she had to work hard and save to buy the items, and had the added inconvenience of having to cancel bank cards and change the car locks.

Preston was stopped on Denmark Street, off North Road, after doing a U-turn to try to avoid riding past two officers on the beat.

He claimed to be a “handler” of stolen goods and not a burglar, but when police checked CCTV, he was at the house a minute after the victim left.

He had also left a Wellington boot print at the scene, prosecutor Harry Hadfield told the court.

He then later confessed to a further four burglaries, eight thefts and one attempted burglary, and asked them to be taken into consideration when he was sentenced yesterday.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, jailed him for two years and four months, and told him: “There was a gap between 2014 and this year, but then a spate of offending by you in the middle part of this year. I don’t know what went wrong.”

Jonathan Walker, mitigating, said after his release from his last prison sentence, Preston, of Wilson Street, Darlington, performed well with supervision from the Probation Service and was working as a volunteer, providing a clothing collection service for vulnerable people.

“It was something he engaged with well,” said Mr Walker. “With his increase in age there was a decrease in offending, until this spate.”