A PROLIFIC thief’s return to burglary came at the home of an elderly deaf woman.

Lee Anthony Graham called at the retired woman’s home in Braithwaite Road, Peterlee, over lunch-time on May 18, last year.

Durham Crown Court heard that as she was upstairs watching television she was unaware an intruder had gained entry.

Martin Towers, prosecuting, said she came downstairs later to discover the burglary in which valuable ornaments and tea-towels were taken.

Due to her deafness she heard nothing of the break-in via a door she thought she had locked.

Mr Towers said, it emerged 28 ornaments worth £3,020 had been taken, but following Graham’s arrest 24 were recovered, leaving only four, valued at £812, still missing.

In a statement, read to the court, the victim, who lives alone, said she found it hard to believe what had happened as she found it upsetting and felt a sense of loss.

Mr Towers said later that day Graham tried to steal £314 worth of goods from a Tesco store in Durham but when challenged by a security guard he tipped the contents of a metallic-lined bag into his trolley, saying: “Here, you can have it all back.”

An off-duty police officer detained Graham as he tried to run off, and a small kitchen knife was found in his pocket.

Mr Towers said it was one of a number of shop thefts carried out by Graham, some with his partner at the time, from York to Birtley, between January and May last year.

The 45-year-old defendant, of Polden Close, Peterlee, admitted burglary, four counts of theft, plus possessing a bladed article and cannabis, which was found on him following his final arrest.

He was said to have 134 cases of theft on his record of 220 offences, plus, now, eight house burglary convictions.

Penny Hall, mitigating, said it was his first burglary since 2012, as he has largely been a shoplifter in recent years.

She said his lapse back to burglary arose after he heard someone who previously attacked him was released from prison.

Mis Hall added that he believed no-one was in the house and claimed it was not a targeted offence.

On realising the effect on the householder he helped retrieve most of the ornaments.

Imposing a four-and-a-half year prison sentence, Judge Jonathan Carroll told Graham he had, “ a dreadful record” demonstrating he is, “pathologically dishonest.”