CARAVANS at a countryside site were targeted by a burglar in an off-season spree.

The site manager was alerted to a break-ins as he showed potential buyers round Winston Bridge Caravan Park, at Ovington, near Barnard Castle, County Durham, on October 5, last year.

Durham Crown Court was told five caravans were burgled, all via smashed side windows.

There were signs of an untidy search in each, with television sets, DVD players, games consoles and other electronic items taken.

Tim Gittins, prosecuting, said the cost of repairing the damaged windows came to £300 per caravan, while the value of items taken was about £200 from each.

Mr Gittins said blood found on a duvet near the entry point in one of the burgled caravans matched with defendant Jonathan Edward Cox.

He was arrested in a van driven by the boyfriend of a recent buyer of a caravan and she confirmed he had once visited them at the site.

The break-ins were believed to have taken place on October 3 when few of the caravans were occupied, although one resident still on site disturbed someone acting suspiciously that night.

The court was told Cox's record includes previous burglaries, but none in recent years.

Thirty-year-old Cox of Carlton Street, Ferryhill, County Durham, admitted five counts of burglary.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said Cox's life has been, "something of a roller-coaster ride," with periods of drug abuse followed by prolonged abstinence.

Mr Constantine said Cox fell back into heroin abuse after being given morphine while in hospital being treated for a broken leg and arm, suffered in an assault.

Jailing him for twelve months, Judge Peter Kelson told Cox: "Your criminal record is a bad and depressing document."