A burglar who broke into the home of an 89-year-old Suffolk woman was caught after her son received an alert on his mobile phone from CCTV he’d had installed in the bungalow, a court has heard.

The victim’s son contacted the police after seeing a man entering the conservatory of his mother’s home in Marlborough Drive, Sudbury at around 4.30pm on March 28 while she was in another part of the property, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

The intruder tried to get into the kitchen but left empty-handed after he was unable to open the door said Joanne Eley, prosecuting.

A police officer who saw images supplied by the victim’s son from his phone recognised the burglar as 26-year-old Henry Smith and when police went to a caravan where he had been living they found bankcards and other contents of a wallet that had been stolen during another burglary in Bures Road, Sudbury.

Smith, of Clover Mees, Great Cornard admitted burglary with intent to steal and to handling the contents of a wallet stolen during a burglary in Bures Road on April 21.

Jailing him for two years, Recorder Richard Atchley said. “This was a victim in her late eighties and it would have been highly stressful for her to discover her house had been burgled when she was in it.”

Giles Fleming, for Smith, said his client had a difficult background and had lived alone on the streets since he was 14.