A JUDGE warned a serial house breaker to stop offending before jailing him for 16 months.

Burnley Crown Court heard Duane Marcel Pickles Murphy, 25, had confessed to his crimes and had taken police on a tour to the homes he had raided.

Sentencing him to 16 months in prison, Judge Raymond Bennett said he had co-operated with police and volunteered information about offences he had committed - and that had to be encouraged.

But the judge added theft and burglary left victims were very upset - and yet the defendant would get "next to nothing" for selling his haul.

He asked the defendant: "I don't know how you are going to spend the rest of your life. Do you?

I hope you have decided to make a clean breast of it and start again."

Judge Bennett told Murphy: "I am sure you have got other abilities."

Murphy, from Nelson, but of no fixed address, admitted two burglaries, one theft charge and asked for eight offences to be considered.

Elizabeth Nicholls, prosecuting, told the court a woman who lived alone on Napier Street, Nelson, came home last October to discover her back door open and property, including electrical items and DVDs, worth about £1,000, had been stolen. She had only recently moved into the house. Murphy, who also also helped himself to a new £200 mountain bike from a woman's car boot, had previous convictions for burglary.

Mark Stuart, defending, said Murphy had been in custody for four months. The only evidence against the defendant was that he had sold on the DVDs at a second-hand shop. He could have admitted handling stolen goods like an accomplice.

There had been no evidence in relation to other offences and he had made very frank admissions. Mr Stuart added the police had no idea who committed most of the offences.