A HEROIN addict who lived rough in a car while he burgled houses at night was jailed for three years yesterday.

Peter Jenkins, 26, was caught by the footprints he left in his victims' homes, but he told police he could not remember the crimes because of his addiction.

Teesside Crown Court heard that police seized his trainers after he was arrested for driving while disqualified, and forensic scientists matched them to the prints he left climbing through windows on to kitchen sinks and baths.

Kate Dodds, prosecuting, said Jenkins twice stole cars from driveways after he found the keys in houses as far apart as Hartlepool and Ripon.

Police officers who knew he was disqualified saw him driving a blue Ford Fiesta car on two days in Hartlepool.

The second time, he was parked in a line of vehicles when a police officer approached.

Jenkins started the engine and the Fiesta hit a parked white van before he reversed into the police car and drove on the pavement.

Jenkins shook off the police pursuit and later said he thought the officers were people trying to get money from him and that he feared for his life.

Ron Mitchell, in mitigation, said Jenkins was not a habitual burglar. He said his client was living rough and that the burglaries were carried out for money for drugs and food.

Jenkins, of Sowerby Grove, Hartlepool, was jailed for three years and disqualified from driving until December 2008 after he pleaded guilty to four burglaries, two offences of driving while disqualified and one of dangerous driving and having no insurance between August last year and May this year.