Burglar caught in flat after being released early

A BURLGAR who started undressing in a shop before breaking into a flat and spouting a bizarre story to the occupant has been jailed for a year.

Michael Tyler had been released early from prison when he went to a Spar store in Weston-super-Mare, took off his shoes and left.

Bristol Crown Court heard he then turned up in a first floor flat, trying to stash jewellery under a quilt, and told the householder: "I'm looking for Christine. She's fat, with short blonde hair and police want her."

Tyler, 29, of Chaucer Road, Weston- super-Mare, pleaded guilty to burglary in February.

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Judge Michael Roach told him: "You have a poor record, with 37 previous court appearances. You were only just released and the householder found you in her home, burgling it."

Simon Goodman, prosecuting, said the householder had seen him in the nearby shop and hadn't taken much notice.

He told the court: "When she got home she found him in the flat.

"She behaved with commendable sang froid and asked 'what are you doing?' He had a chest of drawers open and he was trying to put jewellery under the bed."

It was then, the court heard, when Tyler told how he was looking for someone.

The occupier, a Miss Hewlett, then noticed her phone poking out of his body warmer, reclaimed it and Tyler told her: "That's not yours."

Police called in to deal with the "surreal" occurrence viewed the Spar CCTV and Tyler was picked out from an identity parade.

The court heard the householder's camera was not recovered.

Nadeem Aullybocus, defending, told the judge: "He's been struggling with drugs since the age of 15.

"He tells me it is a vicious circle in which he tries to get out of it and lapses. He had served nine weeks of an 18-week sentence, he was released, he was given pills by a friend and he mixed them with alcohol. He doesn't really know what he did. People say he was acting quite strange."