A WOMAN chased a burglar from her home after she woke to find him in her bedroom.

Then as 41-year-old David Hurst fled fled her home with her possessions he warned her: "Don't follow me or I'll f***ing stab you."

"One can only imagine the horror and terror she felt when she saw a stranger in her bedroom," the Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh told Hurst.

But Bolton Crown Court heard how the encounter did not deter drug addict Hurst and, just two days later, he returned to the same Cawdor Street, Farnworth, terraced house and tried to break in again, only to run off when disturbed. He burgled another woman's house in nearby Harper Green Road instead.

Elizabeth Evans, prosecuting, told the court how the first victim went to bed at 9.30pm on September 9 last year but 45 minutes later Hurst used neighbours' wheelie bins to help him climb over the wall into the woman's yard.

He smashed a window and climbed inside, searching the living room and kitchen and stealing a laptop, Kindle, bottle of rum and watch before heading upstairs taking a £350 Michael Kors handbag from the woman's bedroom.

The woman awoke.

"She shot upright to see the defendant stood at the bottom of her bed. She shouted at him, 'what the f***' and jumped out of bed," said Miss Evans, who added that the 29-year-old woman then chased him down the stairs, ordering him out of the house.

Two days later, at 8.30pm, Hurst got into the woman's yard again and tried the back door handle, but the householder was inside the property and kitchen door was locked.

An hour later Hurst broke into another woman's house on Harper Green Road whilst she was out. He smashed a back door window to get inside, stealing a laptop and a phone cradle as the house alarm went off. He was arrested by police in a nearby field.

Hurst, of Cawdor Avenue, Farnworth, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and attempted burglary.

David Morton, defending, told the court how Hurst had returned to taking drugs after 12 years of abstinence following the death of his parents.

"He found himself floundering and returned to old habits," said Mr Morton.

"He is utterly disgusted by the fact that, not only did he invade those ladies' properties, but that he had upset them so much.

"When confronted with the evidence he was deeply appalled by the fact that he had committed these offences in his own neighbourhood."

Sentencing Hurst to two years and nine months in prison, Judge Walsh told him: "It is to be hoped that you can overcome the drug problems that gave rise to the commission of these offences but there is no doubt that these offences pass the custodial threshold by a significant degree."