A WOMAN who raised the alarm after spotting a break-in is to receive a £250 reward.

Jacqueline Lunn was looking out of the window of a house she was visiting at 4.50pm on April 7 when she saw Michael Philip Holroyd breaking into a flat in Monkgate, said David Bradshaw, prosecuting at York Crown Court. She immediately rang the police who caught the burglar red-handed.

Holroyd, 31, of Ouseburn Avenue, Acomb, has been sentenced to 876 days, or about two years and five months, in jail after pleading guilty to burglary.

Ms Lunn has won a judge's commendation.

Recorder David Hatton QC told York Crown Court: “She could so readily have ignored it, which is likely to have resulted in the defendant avoiding justice. She is to be commended and it seems to me she should appropriately receive more tangible thanks.”

He authorised a public reward of £250.

Mr Bradshaw said Ms Lunn watched as Holroyd forced open a window with a metal bar, put on gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints and climbed inside.

Before police arrived, he had put a laptop and digital camera from the flat in a rucksack ready for taking away.

Holroyd was on two community orders, one for handling stolen goods and one relating to an offence against a dog at the time.

He has previous convictions for house burglary.

He told police he had been so drunk he did not know what he was doing and could remember nothing between meeting someone on Monkgate and being arrested.

For Holroyd, Taryn Turner said her client had health problems relating to a blood clot and was a long-term drug addict.