A BURGLAR who stole jackets and a mobile phone from the porch of a house was tracked down to hospital after being knocked off his bike as he cycled away from the scene.

Lee Shearer, aged 33, originally of Droitwich, was jailed for two years and five months. He pleaded guilty to burgling the house in Clifton-on-Dunsmore, Rugby, Warwickshire, in the early hours of February 10.

Madhu Rai, prosecuting, said Shearer was confronted outside the open garage of a house.

Shearer claimed he had seen the open door and was trying to alert the householder before cycling away.

Later that morning, Shearer was on his bike when he was involved in an accident with a lorry.

Police officers arrived as he was being treated in the back of an ambulance before being taken to hospital.

On the floor of the ambulance was a leather jacket, which the officers did not find suspicious at the time.

But after the owners of the house had got out of bed, they found various jackets, including a leather one, and items in the pockets including a mobile phone and identity cards, and a pair of boots had been stolen from the porch. Police officers went to the hospital and found the stolen leather jacket and the boots by Shearer’s bed.

And while they were at the hospital, they found Shearer had concealed the phone and the identity cards in his underpants.

When he was arrested and questioned, Shearer said he had not gone into the garage, but had gone into the porch looking for a warmer jacket than he was wearing. He said he took the boots because his shoes were too small.

Miss Rai said Shearer had three convictions at Worcester Crown Court in 2003 and 2008 for house burglaries, as well as a number of other convictions.

Peter Cooke, defending, said Shearer had a dreadful start in life and was addicted to heroin by the age of 14.

His previous offending had been in the Droitwich area where his family are from, but while serving his last sentence he was befriended by a respectable man who took him into his home in Graham Road, Rugby, as a lodger when he came out in April last year. Shearer kept out of trouble for 10 months.