A BURGLAR has been jailed for three years after police found his baseball cap in the victim’s house.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Mark O’Mara, 19, had previously been allowed to stay at his victim’s house when he had been homeless.

He turned up at a house party in Rosegrove on May 11 and knew his victim was there.

When she later arrived at her house in Mitchell Street, she found a TV and child’s gold necklace with a pendant — worth £500 — had been taken.

The hearing was told the property had been trashed, the skylight in the kitchen had been removed and the intruder had left through the bathroom window. Police found a baseball cap and the victim noted it was the same as the defendant had been wearing at the party. The TV was returned by a third party, but the victim never got the necklace and pendant back.

O’Mara, who was on a suspended jail term at the time, was arrested and owned up but later went back on his confession and claimed he had taken his mother’s TV and his hat had been stolen. The defendant, of Dean Street, Burnley, had admitted burglary.