A MAN is facing a prison sentence after admitting burglary and assault charges yesterday.

David Richardson, 23, pleaded guilty to burglary and attempted burglary, at homes in Windermere Avenue, Chester-le-Street, on December 19 last year.

Durham Crown Court heard he took keys, a jacket, a scarf and £4 from one of the houses.

Richardson also admitted assault causing actual bodily harm on an off-duty police officer and another resident who gave chase and attempted to detain him in nearby Rydal Road.

Other guilty pleas were submitted on a charge of attempted burglary of a house in Lesbury Close, Chester-le-Street, on October 12, and to being carried in a Volkswagen Bora car, taken without the owner's permission, between August 18 and 21, both last year.

Christopher Dorman O'Gowan, prosecuting, said other counts of burglary, at a house in Brackenbeds Close, Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, last August, and possessing an offensive weapon, a chair leg, in Rydal Road, on December 19, which Richardson yesterday denied, would be left on the file when he returns for sentence.

Judge Richard Lowden remanded Richardson, of Gainford, Chester-le-Street, in custody, pending sentence on March 23, following preparation of reports on him by the probation service.