A DRUG addict who sneaked into a house and took a woman's handbag was caught by her partner.

Burnley Crown Court heard how Lee Bleasdale, 20, had been spotted staggering from the property in Padiham.

When the householder went in pursuit of him, he found the defendant on a mobile phone. He believed the phone was his partner's and when he rang her humber the phone was engaged.

Bleasdale, said to have been hooked on heroin since the age of 15, was sent to a Young Offenders' Institution for 28 months after a judge said he had an "appalling " criminal record for his age.

Recorder Philip Grundy said the victim's partner had had the "foresight and courage," to be able to detain him nearby, after he had invaded the privacy of their home.

Bleasdale, of Garden Street, Padiham, admitted burglary in July, at the house on Kingsley Avenue.