A SERIAL burglar who has targeted more than 100 houses is back behind bars after being caught in the act at a house in York.

Paul Anthony Tingle, 41, was spotted raiding a house in Hunters Way, off Tadcaster Road, by an alert woman neighbour.

The burglary was part of a two-county crime spree that netted Tingle tens of thousands of pounds in two-and-a-half months.

He was jailed at York Crown Court yesterday for six years, the latest in a series of prison sentences for similar raids.

Matthew Bean, prosecuting, said the neighbour alerted officers who simply waited outside the house on September 3 until Tingle emerged and then arrested him.

Two weeks earlier on August 20, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire police had issued a public appeal in a bid to track down the 41-year-old and stop the spate of burglaries he had begun on June 14 while on parole from a five-year prison sentence for earlier burglaries.

Detective Inspector Steve Smith of York CID said: “The sentence gives some protection to the public in the towns and cities targeted by Tingle and I hope it will dissuade others from engaging in such activity in the future.

“The good results are down to the common sense and public spirit shown by a member of the public who informed police of a burglary taking place.”

The neighbour yesterday declined to be named, but said she was glad Tingle was back in jail.

She said had she alerted police after seeing him acting suspiciously near the house.

Tingle, of no fixed address, admitted to five burglaries including the Hunters Way one, and asked for 17 more to be taken into consideration. They included raids in Copmanthorpe, York, Tadcaster, Ripon, Harrogate, Otley and various parts of Leeds.

Judge Stephen Ashurst told Tingle: “You plainly targeted individual properties which you regarded as being easy targets for you.”

Tingle had behaved in a “persistent and cynical way” and shown a “degree of determination” during his latest series of crimes, making 15 separate visits to cities and towns in the area.

The judge heard Tingle took laptops, computer games consoles, cameras and other electronic equipment, jewellery and cash and had netted £25,000 from one raid alone.

Graham Parkin, defending, said that after Tingle’s release from jail in May, he had been unable to get work because police had taken his birth certificate, National Insurance card and passport in 2003 and they had since been “lost in the system”.

He had also been advised not to work, said the defence lawyer, because if he was earning money he would have to pay rent for the halfway house accommodation arranged before he left prison.

As a result, he had fallen back into heroin use and started burgling again. He had given police details of the handlers he sold his loot to.