A SHED raider helped himself to garden tools worth £160 after spending the night there.

Burnley magistrates heard how Paul Smith, 47, who had recently lost his brother and had been out drinking, ended up in the shed in Garden Street, as he was said to have had nowhere to sleep because he had lost his keys. He was said to have climbed in through an already-broken window.

Smith, who stole the haul when he woke up in the morning, was on licence at the time. The defendant, of Lark Street, Nelson, admitted burglary on, or between June 14 and 15, and taking a petrol strimmer, drill, and socket sets.

He was bailed until August 16, for a pre-sentence report.