A MAN with half a dozen burglary convictions has been given a two-year jail term for a similar crime.

Paul Ashworth was told by a Preston Crown Court judge that under new legislation the penalty in future would be three years for a single burglary.

Judge David Boulton said: "Think on next time you are out and about in the middle of the night."

Ashworth, 21, of no fixed address, had been committed by magistrates for sentence for a burglary carried out in May this year.

Mr Andrew O'Byrne, prosecuting, said the offence took place in Whalley Road, Read.

The woman living at the address heard a noise shortly after 4am. She looked out of her bedroom window and saw the security light on. Something similar happened a short time after, but she thought nothing more about it. It turned out that Ashworth had been in her house. Around 6am that day a police officer saw him and another man. Ashworth seemed to drop objects into a garden. He went on to admit to police having been looking for a trials bike to steal.

He claimed to have noticed an insecure door before going in to steal a handbag. The defendant told police the man he was seen with had not been involved.

The bag and some credit cards were recovered, though the woman said £17 was missing. The court heard that he had six convictions for burglary.

Mr Nick Kennedy, defending, said Ashworth accepted that a custody sentence had to follow. "It was an opportune burglary, only committed because the defendant saw the top half of a back door was open.

"From the moment he was detained by the police officer he admitted his involvement."

The judge told Ashworth he had amassed a considerable record for dishonesty type offences.