A BURGLAR with a history of more than 40 offences has been jailed for a year after a passer-by spotted him in a back garden behaving suspiciously and called the police.

Alan Mitcheson, prosecuting at York Crown Court, said the member of the public was walking along Beckfield Lane, Acomb, when she saw Thomas Matthew Paul Metcalfe, 24, through the front and back windows of a room that ran right through one of the houses.

Metcalfe was looking into the house.

Mr Mitcheson said: “Thinking his conduct was suspicious, she alerted police.”

A police officer who was on patrol nearby and was sent to the house caught Metcalfe crouched on his hands and knees next to the house’s damaged back door. The door had not been damaged when the occupier left two days earlier.

“A determined effort had been made by the defendant to get into the property,” said Mr Mitcheson.

Metcalfe, no fixed address, who was on parole from a 30-month sentence at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty to burglary and was given a 12-month jail term and ordered to pay a £100 statutory surcharge.

His barrister Colin Dunn said: “It had all the hallmarks of a very opportunistic burglary.”

He said the burglary bid could be categorised as a less serious burglary.

The court heard Metcalfe has a long record of more than 40 offences and has committed house burglaries in the past. He started his crimes as a young teenager and had served prison sentences in the past. He had been released part-way through a 30-month prison sentence for handling stolen goods and was on parole for that when he tried to break into the Acomb house.