A DRUG addict resorted to burgling the home of his own grandmother to help to fund his heroin addiction, a court heard.

Less than a week after Graeme Park was thrown out for drugs misuse, last October, a neighbour saw him climbing through a first floor window of her house, in Ouston, near Chester-le-Street, while she was away.

Durham Crown Court heard that Park forced a television payment meter, taking £31.

Park, 22, was arrested a month later following a police chase though woods after he was seen taking a bag, containing £130 worth of cash and property, in a sneak-in burglary at a neighbour's house, in Ouston.

He was bailed after being allowed to live back with his grandmother, but within a month he was arrested again when he was caught trying to obtain £77 worth of goods and cash using a stolen credit card at a Birtley supermarket.

Tim Roberts, mitigating, said Park was taken in by his grandmother at a young age, and he realised it was "a mean and despicable offence" to repay her by breaking into her home.

Park, of Rothesay, Ouston, admitted two burglary charges and attempting to obtain by deception, and also asked for an offence of obtaining by deception to be considered.

He was jailed for two years and six months, plus a further 167 days, outstanding after his early release from a previous term in custody.

Judge Denis Orde told him: "It was indeed a mean offence to break into the home of your grandmother, who, to her credit, still took you back."