A REPEAT burglar who raided a house just after being released from prison early for similar offences is back behind bars.

Alan Aldous went straight back on to crack cocaine when he was freed less than 12 months into a two-and-a-half year jail term.

After going to see mates in Swindon the Royal Wootton Basset man went knocking on doors, and when no-one answered at a bungalow smashed his way in.

After making off with a £479 iPad, cash and jewellery, the 28-year-old left blood near a safe inside the Haydon Wick property.

Aldous, of Buxton Way, pleaded guilty to burglary when he appeared in court by video link.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the victim left her home over lunchtime on December 3.

When she returned she found a uPVC panel in the back door had been forced and a window smashed at the bungalow, which is hidden from the road.

Inside, he said, the iPad Air had been taken, a purse containing coppers and 5p pieces and a box containing a charm bracelet and charms.

Police also found a spot of blood and it threw up a DNA match with the defendant.

When he was questioned, he refused to answer questions until he was told about the forensic evidence, when he became distressed.

“The items he had taken were long gone," said Mr Meeke. "He had sold them to people to fund his drug habit. He apologised for what he had done and the distress he had caused.”

Aldous got two-and-a-half years in December 2017 for six burglaries including one where he took a charity box from the home of a bedridden 91-year-old.

That sentence ran alongside the 44 months he got in January 2017 for burglaries including one at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation charity in Chippenham.

As well as a criminal career with more than 20 house raids he has also broken into commercial premises, committed robbery and drugs offences.

Nick Fridd, defending, handed a letter to the judge from his client’s mum and said he realised he was facing three years, less 20 per cent for pleading guilty, as a three-strike burglar.

He said Aldous had got out just a couple of weeks before the raid and quickly got back on to crack cocaine.

Jailing him for 876 days, Judge Robert Pawson said “That is the minimum sentence, it seems appropriate in all the circumstances.

“For the sake of your mother, if not the general public, you have got to stay away from the people that are leading you astray and you have got to stay off drugs.

“That is not an easy thing to do. The sentences are only going to get longer and longer.”