A HOUSEHOLDER caught a burglar high on drink and drugs in his house.

York Crown Court heard Michael Gibbons found stranger Craig Beattie walking towards his back door when he investigated a noise in his house in Green Lane, Acomb, at 5.30pm on December 17.

Briony Hartley, prosecuting, said: “He ran and grabbed hold of the defendant. the defendant tried to struggle free but Mr Gibbons grappled with him.

“He held the defendant there for six or seven minutes until his partner came home. She then phoned police who came and arrested the defendant.”

Painter and decorator Beattie, 32, of Lowfields Drive, Acomb, pleaded guilty to burglary.

Beattie was already on a three-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition he did not commit further offences, York Crown Court heard.

It had been been imposed for domestic-related offences after he breached a community sentence three times.

But Recorder Julian Smith did not make him serve the three-month sentence.

Instead, he passed a nine-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months for burglary to run alongside the first sentence.

He told Beattie he could stay out of jail if he did 100 hours’ unpaid work and observed an 11-hour nightly curfew for five months at an address away from his family home.

“This was a very serious offence,” the judge said. “It must indeed have been chilling for Mr Gibbons to hear a noise and find you in his house.”

He praised Mr Gibbons for keeping his wits about him and said Beattie was “heavily intoxicated” and may have taken 30 Valium tablets before the house raid.

But the burglar was “genuinely” remorseful and it was his first burglary.

His solicitor advocate, Liam Hassan, said the house raid was out of character for Beattie.

Mr Hassan said it had been committed after his client had been drinking and at a time Beattie was having trouble sleeping because a friend had died.