A DRUG addict took on more than he could handle when he raided a flat a few doors away from the hostel where he was staying, York Crown Court heard.

Lee Anthony Thomas, 41, should have been at York Magistrates' Court when he confronted the owner of the flat as she was dressing in her bedroom, said Helen Chapman, prosecuting.

He claimed to be looking for someone and made off towards the nearby YACRO hostel for offenders in Walmgate.

But the woman followed him, spotted her phones in his trousers, made him hand them over and took her flat keys out of his pocket.

He was arrested two hours as he left York Magistrates' Court after a hearing over his failure to comply with a court order. Thomas, now of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to burglary and was jailed for 18 months.

Judge Rodney Jameson QC said of the confrontation in the flat between Thomas and the woman as she was getting dressed: “It is hard to image a more vulnerable situation for her to be in. She found it an extremely stressful experience.”

He added: “It had a remarkable result. She followed you into the street and persuaded you to return those items, at least the phones.”

For Thomas, Neal Kutte said he apologised to the woman and in general for his actions and was remorseful for them.

He had a long-standing drug addiction and on his way back to the hostel from the city centre had seen the communal door to the block of flats open and had gone inside.

Ms Chapman said the woman was getting dressed at 10.30am on August 1 when she heard noises, opened her bedroom door and saw Thomas in her sitting room. “She was understandably shocked and asked him who he was and what he was doing in her flat.”

Thomas claimed to be looking for someone called “Michael” and left. But she realised from the disorder in her flat and the phones’ absence that she had been burgled.

He was identified from CCTV at the hostel showing him returning there and the street confrontation.

The judge reduced the sentence because Thomas had worked well with drug rehabilitation workers.