AN ELDERLY couple have been badly affected following an overnight break-in at their home, a court was told.

The householders were asleep when intruder Jason Andrew Bolingbroke gained access via a closed, but unlocked kitchen window, to their home in St Godric’s Road, Newton Aycliffe, in the early hours of September 9.

Durham Crown Court was told that their son, who was staying there, was awoken by a gate opening outside and went downstairs to investigate.

He saw the kitchen window and front door open, with property from the house placed nearby ready to be removed.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, said police were called and a fingerprint lift from the kitchen window frame matched on records with Bolingbroke’s print.

He was arrested two days later and admitted the break-in, plus the theft of a satellite navigation system from a Vauxhall Passat, parked in Maling Green, Newton Aycliffe, also on September 9.

Mr Dryden said Bolingbroke told police he was “off his nut” at the time of the offences, having taken a concoction of drugs.

But he recalled leaving the house empty-handed when he heard someone coming downstairs.

Bolingbroke also told officers he had taken a number of items from parked cars, but he could not recall exactly when and where due to the drugs he had taken.

In his victim statement the householders’ son said the burglary badly affected them, having a “huge impact” on their family life.

He said they are now “all on edge”, reacting to every noise and light being switched on outside.

Mr Dryden said the son told police his mother no longer wants to be alone in the house.

The court was told Bolingbroke has “numerous” convictions, including three burglary offences in recent years.

Mr Dryden said he served a ten-month custodial sentence earlier this year and the offences came only five weeks after he received a community supervision order for aggravated vehicle taking and theft.

Twenty-year-old Bolingbroke, of no fixed address, admitted burglary, theft and asked for 28 further offences, mostly thefts from parked cars, to be taken into consideration.

John Turner, mitigating, said Bolingbroke’s offending has been crammed into the last four years since he was introduced to drugs.

But, he said he now recognises his problems and hopes to make a clean start when he emerges from prison.

Recorder Paul Miller, who described Bolingbroke as, “nothing short of a one-man crime wave”, imposed a two-and-a-half year custodial sentence, starting in a young offenders’ institution.