A BURGLAR who had drunk two bottles of vodka was captured on CCTV breaking into an unoccupied house through a kitchen window that had been left open.

Kevin Howlett claimed he only became aware there was no-one in the property in Dorothy Street, Middlesbrough, when his dog wandered into the garden while he took it for a walk.

Howlett had drunk two bottles of vodka on the night in question, December 19 last year, in order to dull the pain from having his front teeth knocked out in a dispute earlier that day, his barrister Andrew White told Teesside Crown Court.

This had “clouded his judgement”, he said.

The defendant, of Thomas Street, North Ormesby, near Middlesbrough, stole a number of electrical items including a toaster in the raid.

He later admitted the burglary, having handed himself into police.

Judge Peter Armstrong said this was the fourth domestic burglary he had been convicted of and jailed him for two years, five months.