A BURGLAR caught trying to break into a garden shed told police he was looking for scrap metal.

Burnley Crown Court heard cocaine addict David George Sydney Taylor awoke neighbours in Harling Street Burnley at 5.25am on September 25 pulling the metal doors off the shed.

Prosecuting, Stephen Parker said Taylor had been minutes earlier in a puffer coat carrying a pair of ladders.

Suspicious about what he was doing that individual had taken a photograph of Taylor, before ringing the police.

A police officer was dispatched to the scene and heard a clattering noise coming from the garden containing the shed, before here a neighbour shouting "oye" in a bid to scare Taylor off.

The officer said he saw Taylor, a father-of-three, walking towards Gannow Lane, sweating and looking agitated.

Mr Parker said when Taylor was approached by the officer he said he was looking for scrap metal, but a search revealed he was carrying a spanner, gloves and a torch.

Taylor was arrested and interviewed by police.

Mr Parker said: "He denied that he was the person in the image taken by the neighbour. He said he had a similar jacket but it wasn't him. He said it must have been somebody else who looked like him."

Taylor, 31, of Cog Lane, Burnley, pleaded guilty to burglary, going equipped for burglary and breaching two suspended sentences.

Defending, Laura Heywood said her client accepted he was in a difficult position.

She said: "The defendant states he lost his grandfather and has been told his mother has cancer. That has led to him using cocaine as a coping mechanism. That in turn led him to committing this offence.

"He is working with the mental health department and drug agencies in prison. He has started on a business course."

Judge Sara Dodd jailed Taylor for 12 months.