A DRUG-USING Bromsgrove burglar was caught by DNA from a burnt match after breaking into the home of a woman in her 80s while she was asleep.

Daniel Hunt, aged 33, of Burcot Lane, was jailed for two years after he admitted burglary at the home of Molly Butcher in Gloucester.

The raid left the pensioner "nervous and edgy" and she had to replace the patio door they removed to get in, Giles Nelson, prosecuting, told Gloucester Crown Court.

Hunt and 24-year-old Christopher Mitchell, of Matson Lane, Gloucester, who was jailed for two-and-a-half years, admitted two other burglaries. Hunt also admitted failing to surrender to bail, theft and possession of a bladed article.

Mr Nelson said the pair were let out of Gloucester police station on August 5 last year after being arrested on unrelated matters and went on a night-time crime spree.

They broke into Mrs Butcher's house sometime between 1am and 4.30am and took property including wine, tie pins and a watch, he said. But a burnt match left on the floor of her home caught them out when DNA matching linked it to Hunt.

They also broke in through the roof of a shop and stole sweets and then went on to break into another house, setting off the burglar alarm. They were seen running away by a neighbour who called the police. In the house, officers found more forensic evidence.

Nigel Fryer, for Hunt, said he was an 'entrenched Class A drug user' and that was the reason he had committed the offences. However, he was now clean of drugs and anxious to break his habit.

He asked the court to consider passing a drug treatment and testing order.

For Mitchell, Mr Stephen Richards said he had been "in thrall" to a cocktail of heroin and crack cocaine for the last decade.

"He has a large hole in his upper thigh from main line injecting and as a result of that he has contracted deep vein thrombosis. He is 24 and he knows that unless he comes off drugs he won't see 34," he said. Recorder Shamim Qureshi said the offences were too serious for anything other than prison.