A DRUNKEN burglar who was caught half way through a couple's bedroom window on Christmas Eve has been jailed for 28 months.

Neil Bambrick was grabbed by the occupants as he tried to climb into their ground floor flat of a sheltered accommodation complex as they slept.

But though the 33-year-old managed to wriggle free, he was picked up by police soon after and turned abusive, threatening to rape their families as they detained him.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Michael and Lorraine Roney were asleep in their ground floor flat in George Selman Gardens on December 24.

"At about 4am Mrs Roney woke up to see the defendant half in and half out of her window," she said.

"Her husband woke and grabbed the defendant's legs and she went and grabbed his arms and tried to call the police at the same time.

"He managed to wriggle free and dropped down to the ground. It seems he injured himself and lay there for a while, but by the time they got out and round there he had gone."

Police rushed to the scene on Twyford Road, Park North, and after noticing a dog tied to a post nearby did a drive round when they saw Bambrick limping along the road.

"They put two and two together and arrested him," said Ms Squire.

"He was aggressive and abusive towards them. He did tell them he had been to his aunt's and left his dog tied up."

Because of his injuries he was taken to accident and emergency, where he was again abusive, and in the van back to the police station he urinated.

In a victim statement Mrs Roney told how the raid had affected her, making her nervous to leave windows open or be home alone.

She added they live in sheltered accommodation and the impact on elderly or vulnerable neighbours could have led to them having a heart attack from the shock.

Bambrick, of Welcombe Avenue, Park North, pleaded guilty to one charge of burglary and two of threatening behaviour.

The court heard he had previous convictions for breaking into houses from 2007 and 2009 making him a three strike offender.

Rob Ross, defending, said since he came out of prison in 2011 he had only been convicted of shoplifting on four occasions.

He said he had been living an industrious life for the first time finding himself stable accommodation with his partner.

"It is extremely sad that on this particular day, for reasons he can't really explain, he allowed himself to get completely intoxicated," he said.

"He was arrested and he accepts he was vile. He apologises unreservedly for his behaviour that evening."

Jailing him, Recorder Simon Levene said: "You have committed five burglaries and this is your sixth.

"You tried to break into the house of a couple who were in bed at the time and caught you at it in the early hours of Christmas Eve and scared the living daylights out of them, and for a long time after.

"Then your threats to rape the families of the police officers and urinating quite deliberately, I am satisfied, in the police car."