A NIGHT-time house raider who struck to feed his £25,000 a year amphetamine habit has been locked up for three years.

Dean Mortimer, 44, sneaked into a family home as a woman and her two young children slept and helped himself to a haul including a £775, 42-inch television, computers, scrap gold and £160 cash.

Mortimer, who asked a man he knew to be his lookout, was seen coming out of the property with an accomplice, carrying the TV. The defendant was caught out after leaving footprints, Burnley Crown Court was told.

Mortimer, with almost 140 offences on his 32-year record, struck while subject to a suspended sentence imposed for theft and had also stolen pork steaks on two consecutive days.

The defendant, of Derby Street, Nelson, who was already serving 16 weeks in custody, admitted burglary in Colne on July 3 and two counts of theft.

David Macro, prosecuting, said the victim woke up to find someone had been in her house. She believed she had left the front door unlocked.

Footprints were found where the television was taken.The day after the burglary, the victim was visited by a man who told her Mortimer and another man were responsible.

Mr Macro said when police stopped Mortimer, they noticed he was wearing trainers with a similar tread pattern to the prints found at the house.

A man then made a statement and said he been walking in the area at 4am, when Mortimer asked him to be a lookout.

He said he refused and later saw the defendant and another man carrying a television out of the back of a house.

Mortimer also stole meat from Jack Fulton's store on May 18 and 19. When he was questioned, he claimed he had found the trainers in a shoe bank in Colne.

The defendant said he had a amphetamine habit of £70 to £80 a day.

The hearing was told Mortimer had 136 offences on his record, going back to 1981, including house burglaries, and had been behind bars several times.

Sentencing, Recorder Kevin Grice told the defendant he had an ‘absolutely appalling’ record in relation to offences of dishonesty, going back many years.

He said: "Fortunately for you, although the house was occupied, they were not aware of what was happening and there was no confrontation or ransacking."