POLICE cleared up a string of unsolved crimes when a burglar’s mother called them to shop him for stealing from her, a court heard yesterday.

Donna Duff dialled 999 when she saw son Anthony Collins carrying a television out of their home in Redcar, east Cleveland, in July.

When officers searched 30-year-old Collins’ bedroom, they found a stash of stolen goods from a house burglary in his home town a week earlier.

After confessing to the raid, the prolific offender owned up to a further eight offences in Redcar around the same time, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The list of unsolved crimes included the thefts of motorbikes, a mountain bike and tools from sheds, and a widescreen TV.

Judge George Moorhouse heard Collins had served prison sentences for robbery, burglary and drugs, and told him: “You have an appalling record.”

The burglary in Corporation Road, Redcar, was carried out by Collins while a couple and their three children were asleep upstairs on June 29.

A digital camera, lap-top computer, three mobile telephones, a Prada handbag and a Next bag were stolen, said Gale Gilchrist, prosecuting.

After Ms Duff called the police on July 6, officers discovered all the property except for the handbag and phones in Collins’ bedroom.

Collins, of Micklow Close, Redcar, admitted burglary and asked for the eight other offences to be taken into consideration for sentencing.

Judge Moorhouse told him: “The serious and aggravating feature of the burglary is that the occupants were in the house asleep at the time.”

He was yesterday jailed for three years, but will not be released half-way through his sentence because he is already behind bars for a robbery.

Collins received eight years in 2004 and was freed in 2008, but was recalled on licence until 2013 for breaching the terms of his early release.