A NETHERTON burglar who took property worth £660 from a disabled neighbour sold it for just £70 to pay drug debts.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court, Christopher Cooper was jailed for a year after Judge Robin Onions told him he had a "dreadful" list of previous criminal convictions involving a number of burglaries going back to 1990.

Cooper, aged 42, smashed a window to gain access to the woman's ground floor flat, said Mr Mark Rees prosecuting, and he took two TV's, a laptop computer, jewellery, a quantity of cash and a coin collection.

The judge, who accepted Cooper had not broken into a house for 15 years, said: "You had to pay a debt off and you made the conscious decision to return to burglary.

"You deliberately targeted this property in what was clearly a planned offence. It is clear you knew the victim, that she was disabled and that she away from her home."

Cooper, of Copse Road, was arrested following the discovery of a bloodstain at the scene that enabled police to track him down through DNA testing.

He told police officers he was "desperate" to clear the drug debt. "I knew she would not be at home," he went on. "I sold the property I took to discharge the debt."

Simon Williams, for Cooper, said his client had relapsed back into drugs because of personal problems and he quickly built up a debt to his dealer.

Mr Williams added: "He is disgusted with himself for what he did, he did not think he would go back down that road again."