A CONVICTED burglar on the run for almost four weeks was today back behind bars after being arrested on Christmas Day.

Lee Peter Holden, 26, whose last address was Roebuck Close, in Galligreaves, Blackburn, was arrested near the scene of a suspected break-in. He is now back at Kirkham Prison, near Preston.

Police found Holden by chance after a neighbour called, reporting suspicious activity around a home in Blackburn. The officers who arrived realised the house had been burgled and searched the area on foot.

As they approached a car, one of the officers recognised Holden in the driver's seat. He was arrested at the scene and returned to prison. Another man was arrested on suspicion of burgling a house.

Holden had absconded from the open prison on November 29. And police issued details of Holden's escape in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph the week before Christmas in an attempt to get him back behind bars.

DC Tom Riley, of Blackburn's burglary team, said the appeal had helped because it had publicised intelligence that Holden was in Darwen. Holden had been sentenced in June to two-and-a-half years in jail for burgling a Blackburn house.

In July 2001, Holden also escaped from Sudbury Prison, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire, while he was serving 18 months for another burglary.

Holden, who was said by police to specialise in shed burglaries, has more than 12 convictions for burglary. According to the latest figures, 18 prisoners a month abscond from Kirkham Prison.