A DRUG addict with 32 previous convictions for house burglary launched into a foul-mouthed rant at a judge about being given a ‘lack of help’ when he was jailed for his latest home invasion.

Judge Andrew Jefferies QC jailed Daniel Francis Devlin for five years and seven months for the 45-year-old’s latest burglary.

Mr Jeffries criticised Devlin, who was also in breach of a suspended sentence, for his poor compliance with previous court orders, including drug rehabilitation requirements.

As dock officers went to take him down to the cells, Devlin said: “That’s a disgrace that. You said we have got help. We don’t get help.

“It’s a f****** joke.”

Burnley Crown Court heard how Devlin and co-defendant Danny Ross, who himself has 13 previous convictions for house burglaries, broke into a house in Maple Street, Accrington, in the early hours of July 5.

Present at the time were victim Mark Sharples, his wife and two-year-old child.

Devlin and 38-year-old Ross stole the keys to an £8,000 Peugeot, a royal blue HP stream laptop, a purse containing bank cards and driving licence and front and rear door keys.

They then stole the Peugeot from outside the victim’s house.

Devlin, of Dall Street, Burnley, and Ross, of no fixed address, both pleaded guilty to domestic burglary, theft of a car and fraud by false representation in relation to use of stolen a bank card.

Mr Jeffries said: “It is not just, as Mr Sharples said, the inconvenience of being burgled, it’s the fact of violation. To quote Mrs Sharples, ‘it is not feeling safe in your own home’.

“You Mr Devlin have heard that said on 32 previous occasions. You Mr Ross must have heard that on 13 occasions.

“I am not sure it is right to describe you as career burglars but in each of your cases it’s an unenviable record of previous convictions. And here you are again..

Mr Jeffries said the offences were aggravated by the defendants’ previous convictions.

He continued: “Your mitigation in both your cases is about the difficulties you have had with substance abuse.

“Although it is right to say that the motivation behind these offences is addiction to illegal substances you have both had lots of opportunities to address those problems but have not taken them.”

Ross was jailed for six years and three months.