A PROLIFIC burglar was sent back to jail yesterday.

Shaun Burrows, 31, of Greenham Walk, Park North, was jailed for 29 months after he admitted one charge of burglary.

Swindon Crown Court heard Burrows had returned to burglary just four months after he was freed from prison on early release licence.

Marion Langford, prosecuting, told the court a neighbour became suspicious when he saw an open window at a ground-floor flat in Radstock Avenue, Park North, on Tuesday, July 7.

He got his wife to call the Police">Police">Police">Police">police and then spotted Burrows, who he recognised, leaving with a bin liner which turned out to be filled with stolen property.

Miss Langford said the flat was occupied by a woman and her young child, and added the mother had been greatly upset by the break-in and now feels insecure there.

“This incident has re awoken her worries and concerns from previous matters,” she told the court.

When he was arrested Burrows admitted his crime and told officers about five other burglaries in April, May and June, Miss Langford said.

She added that Burrows had a long history of offending and had at least two previous convictions for dwelling house burglary, making him liable to a mandatory minimum three year term.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client had been released from prison a few days after Christmas last year and initially went to live in Malmesbury.

He said Burrows got in touch with drug support agencies and was prescribed methadone but after a while had to move to Swindon for family reasons.

Mr Ross said that after Burrows moved there was a breakdown in communication between the drugs support agencies in the two towns, leaving his client without the heroin-substitute.

He said Burrows tried to buy methadone illegally on the streets but eventually reverted to heroin and had to offend to fund the habit.

Urging the court not to impose a jail term, he said: “The offence was committed out of desperation, desperation through no fault of his own.”

Judge Douglas Field imposed the 29-month jail term – giving Burrows the maximum 20 per cent discount for pleading guilty.

Judge Field said: “As a result of this conviction I have to impose a mandatory term of at least three years’ imprisonment unless I think that it is unjust to impose that sentence.”