A BURGLAR who was seen trying to enter an 11-bedroomed property to steal items inside was found with a mobile phone taken the same day from another home.

Paul Donnelly, who has 43 convictions for 74 offences, told police he was looking after the phone for a friend.

He was seen acting suspiciously outside a detached house in Stokesley Road, Guisborough, east Cleveland, and ran off when the householder was alerted to him trying a door.

An off duty police officer happened to be passing and assisted the female householder and helped report the matter to the police.

Donnelly, 33, of Bolton Court, Middlesbrough, who has also has three convictions for handling stolen goods, had seen his life blighted by hard drugs.

His barrister Paul Newcombe said: “He is getting to the age now where it is starting to dawn on him he cannot carry on like this.”

Mr Newcombe said Donnelly was on a methadone scheme in Durham Prison and it was hoped he would eventually get sober.

Judge Sean Morris ordered two jail sentences of ten months each for attempted burglary and handling stolen goods.