A 47-YEAR-old man who kicked in his ex-fiancee's front door told Burnley magistrates shoddy workmanship was to blame for it breaking.

The court had heard how Alan Alderson then asked the woman: "Why have you done it? Why have you left me?"

Alderson, of Norfolk Street, Colne, who has a recent previous conviction for common assault, admitted causing £30 damage and was bailed until March 14 for details of the earlier offence.

Andy Robinson, prosecuting, said the woman and the defendant had been in a relationship for about a year and got engaged before Christmas.

By the early part of February, as far as she was concerned, the relationship was over and she left the house they shared and went back to her own address.

She was at home when the phone rang about three times. Shedid not answer it as she believed it would be Alderson.

Mr Robinson said she then heard kicking on the front door, breaking the chain and damaging the door frame.

Alderson later admitted to police what he had done.

Alderson told the court his ex-partner caused him a lot of grief. He said he broke the door frame and not the door.

He went on: "I didn't shoulder charge it or anything. I put it down to shoddy workmanship."