A DRUNKEN man was caught red-handed at the scene of a break-in at the home of an 85-year-old woman.

Laurie Corbett, 33, was seen sitting in the garden alongside the bungalow, in Park Road South, Chester-le-Street, last month, by a milk delivery man.

Ornaments and vases taken by Corbett, after smashing a window with a paving stone and reaching into the living room, were strewn around the garden and flower beds.

Durham Crown Court was told that when police arrived they found Corbett leaning against a wall in the driveway, "in an extremely drunken condition".

The ornaments were recovered and when police knocked up the shocked householder, she confirmed they were taken from her home.

Martin Towers, mitigating, said: "It was a highly stupid and incompetent piece of work by a man who had 16 pints and had an argument with his wife."

Mr Towers said Corbett was locked out of his home, so was left walking the streets, when he came upon the bungalow, which he decide to burgle.

"It was a gross piece of stupidity, which he now regrets very much," said Mr Towers.

Corbett, of Lancaster Terrace, Chester-le-Street, who admitted burglary at an earlier hearing, was yesterday jailed for six months.