A BURGLAR who squirted expanding foam into a house alarm to stop it going off has been jailed after ransacking a home in Westhoughton.

Steven Holmes, 48, was handed an 18 month sentence by Judge Timothy Stead at Bolton Crown Court, following the incident on November 16 last year.

Paul Dockery, prosecuting, said it was at around 8.30pm when the home owner returned from work to his address on Grundy Street, Westhoughton, to find the French windows at the back of his house were smashed.

He entered the house and found a number of drawers open and items thrown across the floor on both floors of the house.

On further investigation, he found a ladder, that was usually kept at the side of the house, on the front lawn.

The ladder had been used to lean up against the front of the house and the victim found that an alarm had been immobilised by someone squeezing expanding foam inside it.

In total it was found that 15 items had been stolen from the address, including jewellery, a laptop, cash, car keys and a watch which had sentimental value to the owner as it had been his father’s.

The total value of the items was given by Mr Dockery as £4,470.

Blood was discovered at the scene that was found to match the defendant’s and on November 28, officers visited Holmes’ partner’s address on Roseneath Road in Farnworth where he was arrested.

A search of the property revealed many of the items that had been stolen and they were returned to the home owner.

In a victim impact statement read to the court by Mr Dockery, the victim said he he was now “wary of people being near his house” and had been forced to “change his habits” due to fearing someone was watching the property.

Mr Dockery added that Holmes had 29 previous theft offences on his record which stretched back to March 1988, including a four year sentence for robbery in 1992.

He was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to burglary at Bolton Magistrates’ Court on November 29.