A DRUG-FUELLED burglar walked past a startled householder as he left the premises, picking up her handbag on the way out, a court heard.

The victim returned to her home in Neville’s Cross, Durham, minutes earlier, having dropped a child at school, on the morning of October 13.

Durham Crown Court heard that she became aware someone was present, having heard a noise upstairs in the detached three-storey home.

Victoria Lamballe, prosecuting, said she went into the hall way and was confronted by a young male stranger coming down the stairs.

“He walked downstairs, picked up her handbag, which she had left at the bottom of the stairs, and walked out the rear of the house.”

Miss Lamballe said the shaken woman contacted police and discovered doors and drawers left open, with £60 taken from one.

Other items were placed in the study, ready for removal.

A man in a camouflage jacket, as worn by the burglar, was seen nearby,.

He gave a false name, but the correct date of birth, enabling police to identify him as David Ambler.

His image was shown to the householder and she confirmed he was the intruder.

Miss Lamballe said when questioned later he told police he could not remember the incident as, “he was off his head with ‘blues’,” a reference to the anti-depressant drug diazepam, and, “wasn’t in a good place”.

He told police he had a problem with diazepam and claimed to have merely gone into the house looking for somewhere to sleep, denying that he took any property or belongings.

Miss Lamballe said the break-in has had an unnerving effect on the family living at the property, who often lock doors now even when they are at home in daytime.

The court heard Ambler’s previous convictions include offences of dishonesty, but none are for burglary.

Ambler, 20, of Wear Street, Seaham, admitted burglary.

Neil Bennett, mitigating, told the court Ambler was trying to deal with substance misuse, but, at the time of the offence, “the wheels had fallen off”.

Imposing a 14-month custodial sentence, Judge Simon Hickey told Ambler, in his “drugged up state”, anything could have happened in the confrontation.