A COUPLE were terrified when they returned from walking their dog to find a man raiding their home in Reedley, a court heard.

Career burglar and drug addict, Adam Parkinson, 29, shouted at the victims: "Let me go and I won't hurt you.

He then allegedly took hold of the husband and pushed him to one side. He demanded the door key, was handed it and was said to have then run off with a £800 haul of jewellery.

Parkinson, who had ransacked the couple’s bedroom, was arrested hiding nearby with some tobacco pouches from the house.

He made no comment when he was questioned and was later picked out on an identity parade.

Burnley Crown Court was told the defendant, who started breaking the law when he was 14, had already served terms of three years, 29 months and then 876 days behind bars for attacking other people's properties.

Parkinson, of Scott Street, Padiham, is now back in prison - this time for four years, after admitting burglary, last November.

Judge Jonathan Gibson, who had been handed a letter from the defendant, told him: "You accept in the letter that you have written that you have caused the victims sorrow and misery. The public duty demands the sentence that I impose."

Brian McKenna, prosecuting, said the husband of the couple suffered ill health.

They left their house on Colne Road, for about an hour in the morning and when they returned found a kitchen window smashed.

The wife went in to the kitchen, heard footsteps, started panicking, got her husband to call the police and went into the hallway, where she saw Parkinson coming down the stairs.

Kathryn Johnson, for Parkinson, said he fully appreciated how frightened the householders would have been.