INEPT burglar Abdi Isman was caught by police who watched him as he went down a Swindon street rattling doorknobs, a court was told.

A householder was woken during the early hours by the sound of his front door being tried and looked out of the window to see a man doing the same thing to other front doors in the street, Sam Butterfield told Swindon Crown Court.

The witness called the police who saw what Isman, 28, was doing. When he saw them he dropped some bank cards that were later found to have been stolen from a house in Newhall Street that same night. When he was arrested he denied taking them, but eventually pleaded guilty to burglary with intent to steal.

Mr Butterfield drew attention to Isman's previous convictions for dishonesty and the fact that he was in breach of a conditional discharge imposed in March by Gloucester Crown Court.

Ian Halliday, for Isman, of Digby Street, Scunthorpe, Lincs, said he was deeply ashamed of the crimes he had committed.

He described the Somali's offence as a "completely artless" burglary and said he didn't even take the basic precaution of looking behind him to check that he wasn't being watched.

He explained that Isman came to the UK as a 14-year-old after being orphaned during fighting in Somalia. Although he had some educational achievements and a relatively good work record, he was given to periods of depression something that was understandable in light of what had happened to him. But rather than see a GP and get a diagnosis, he had medicated himself with alcohol.

Judge Thomas Longbotham imposed a 180-hour punishment order for the burglary and another 40 hours, consecutive, for breaching the conditional discharge. He warned Isman that if the order broke down he would be looking at a two-year prison sentence.

"That fact led to him being caught and also indicates that he could not be described as a professional or experience man going about crime."