A HOMELESS man walked into a police station and confessed to two burglaries in a bid to solve his accommodation problems for the second time, York Crown Court heard.

Jason Vincent Longhurst, 37, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two burglaries and carrying a knife and was jailed for nine months.

It was the second time in under a month Longhurst had acted to get off the streets by ensuring a court would lock him up.

Four weeks ago, York magistrates jailed him for six weeks for assaulting a police community support officer (PCSO) two days after he was released from a 28- week prison sentence.

They heard that he had deliberately committed the assault to get himself imprisoned.

At York Crown Court, Alex Menary, defending, said: “Accommodation is his problem. That is the reason he went to confess to these burglaries. He is hopeful that, on his release, he will receive some support such that his accommodation problem is resolved.”

Earlier this month, York magistrates heard that when Longhurst assaulted the PCSO he was on a community order during which probation officers had tried to help him find accommodation.

Peter Sabiston, prosecuting, said that on October 31, Longhurst walked into Fulford Road Police Station with a knife in his pocket and confessed to two daytime burglaries, one committed in March 2014 in Skelton and one in 2011 in land off Shipton Road, York.

He had made a tidy search of both buildings while their owners were out and taken a camera, television and electronic items among others.

When police searched him, they found a knife in his pocket.

After he confessed, police ensured that Longhurst had committed the burglaries, comparing his account to that given by the victims and taking him for a ride in a police car to point out the properties.

Mr Menary said there was no forensic evidence linking him to the scene and without his confession, the burglaries would have remained undetected.

Mr Sabiston told the court one of Longhurst’s victims may now give up living alone because she was so affected by discovering that Longhurst had been in her home while she was out.