A DESPERATE teenage addict targeted homes of elderly people to burgle in a bid to pay off his drug debts, a court heard.

Nineteen-year-old Carl Andrew Kelly, who struck several times in Chester-le-Street, in May, was yesterday sent to a young offenders' institution for 40 months.

Durham Crown Court heard the spree was carried out only weeks after Kelly received a suspended four-month custodial sentence.

Chris Williamson, prosecuting, said Kelly, of Second Avenue, Chester-le-Street, forced entry to a house in the street early in the morning of May 10.

The 71-year-old householder, who was asleep upstairs, later discovered £80 was missing, and a knife was removed from a drawer.

Mr Williamson said three nights later, Kelly took property worth £919 after breaking into the home of a 60-year-old, in Fife Avenue.

After being arrested and bailed, on May 20, Kelly took a phone and bottles of spirits in a burglary at the home of a 79-year-old, in Cheviot Road, early on May 22.

He abandoned an attempted break-in at an 81-year-old man's house, in Ullswater Road, when he was disturbed by a dog walker, the same night.

Mr Williamson said Kelly also stole a compact disc player after breaking into a parked car in Second Avenue, and caused up to £800 worth of damage to a door and window in an attempted theft from a parked Peugeot 406, in Cheviot Road.

He was arrested again, at 2.15am on May 23, and has been in custody since, added Mr Williamson.

Kelly, whose previous record includes 26 break-ins, admitted three burglaries, an attempted burglary, theft and attempted theft at an earlier hearing.

He also asked for six further offences, including two house burglaries, to be taken into consideration.

Mark Giuliani, mitigating, described Kelly's offending as "a drug-fuelled crime spree".

Sending him to a young offenders' institution for three years, and adding on the activated four-month suspended sentence imposed in April, Judge Beatrice Bolton told Kelly: "These are extremely serious - creeping into these people's homes while they were asleep in bed, stealing what you could."

She added that he appeared to have targeted the homes knowing the occupants were elderly