A burglar who committed a string of burglaries to fund his drug habit has been jailed for 44 months.

Scott Chesney stole property worth more than £10,000 during the break-ins, Ipswich Crown Court heard.

Chesney, 36, of Kings Hill, Great Cornard, admitted burglary at a house in Upper East Street, Sudbury, on October 5 and asked for four offences of burglary to be considered.

Richard Kelly, prosecuting, said the owner of the property in Upper East Street went out at 6.30pm on October 5 and returned home at around 11pm to discover her home had been burgled.

The first thing she noticed was paperwork on the floor of the hall and, realising she had been burgled, telephoned the police.

“She was distressed and was unable to go further into the property until the police arrived,” said Mr Kelly.

He said an untidy search had been made of the premises, with drawers tipped out and items strewn over the floor.

Property worth £4,435, including jewellery and electrical items, was stolen.

Chesney was arrested in relation to a number of burglaries and one of his trainers was found to match a footprint left at the scene of the burglary in Upper East Street, said Mr Kelly. He said Chesney had a number of previous convictions for burglary and was therefore subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of three years.

He said following his arrest Chesney had been recalled to prison until 2018 in respect of an eight-year sentence imposed in 2010 for attempted robbery.

He said one of the offences to be considered related to a burglary at a property in Kings Meadow, Great Cornard, during which property worth more than £6,000 had been stolen.

Charles Myatt, for Chesney, said his client had been using class A drugs since the age of 18 and his offending had been drug related.

He said following his release from prison on licence in December 2014 Chesney had initially been clean of drugs, but had “fallen off the wagon” and started using drugs again, resulting in him committing the five offences the court had heard about.