A PUB relief manager lay terrified, as intruders raided the premises, twice entering her bedroom, a court heard.

The woman was sleeping with her daughter on the second floor of the Grand Hotel, in South Church, Bishop Auckland, when she was awoken by a noise.

Durham Crown Court was told she was aware of someone on the landing, and footsteps entering the living quarters, so she tried to contact police on a nearby phone.

Alerted by the noise, one of the burglars entered the room and so the woman pretended to be sleeping, although she was aware of someone standing over her breathing, Peter Sabiston, prosecuting, told the court.

Later, despite being almost "frozen with fear", she made a further attempt to ring for help, but again someone entered the room looking to see if anyone was awake.

Mr Sabiston said when police arrived minutes later the woman leapt from her bed, and screamed hysterically from the window to alert the officers.

The intruders tried to flee from the premises but were cornered and arrested in the rear yard.

Mr Sabiston said the pool table and fruit machine were rifled, while an attempt was made to force the safe.

Gordon Whitfield, 28, Colin Calvert, 38, and Marc Ian Wright, 27, all from Bishop Auckland, claimed it was a "spur of the moment" break-in on premises they believed were unoccupied.

All three admitted the burglary, last July, while Whitfield admitted four other break-ins at homes in Bishop Auckland.

Mr Sabiston said Whitfield was in part implicated for those through the relatively new forensic technology of earprints - similar to fingerprints - left on windows at two of the houses.

Wright admitted another burglary, in Brooklands, dating from 1996.

Whitfield, of Wensleydale Square, was jailed for four years, while Calvert, of Brooklands, and Wright, of Walker Drive, were both given three-year sentences.