BURGLAR Allen Harris has been jailed for 18 months after he and a friend raided an old lady's house.

The 30-year-old drug addict was caught after a distinctive tattoo was spotted in a photograph taken by a vigilant neighbour.

Harris, of Cranmore Avenue in Swindon, and his accomplice Larry Hanrahan had gone to an old people's complex in Abingdon, Oxon, last spring, a court heard.

While Harris kept watch his co-defendant burgled a bungalow at Cotton Close, Abing-don, at about 6pm on Thursday June 12 last year.

Swindon Crown Court heard that 84-year-old Margaret Chester was in the bathroom of her own home when she saw a man walk past in the garden.

But neighbour Clive Neal was suspicious of the silver J-reg Ford Mondeo the two men were in so got his camera and took a photograph of the car.

George Threlfall, prosecuting, said that while Hanrahan was identified as the driver by facial mapping techniques the Crown could not be sure it was Harris.

However, they said that a distinctive tattoo on his left forearm could clearly be seen in the picture and that identified him.

He said that both men were arrested a couple of weeks later.

The court was told that Harris had a string of previous convictions including burglary in 1991 and 1994 and other offences relating to drugs and theft.

At a previous hearing Harris pleaded guilty to burglary. Hanrahan also admitted the offence and was sentenced to an 18-month drug treatment and testing order by a court in Leicester.

Both men also denied five other matters of burglary across the south west over a two week period.

Jailing him Recorder Tim Grice said "It is an unpleasant offence because it involves an old person's residential complex and a person of considerable age who was upset by it. I have no doubt that custody is the only justifiable sentence."

Tamash Lal