A burglar who claimed he stumbled into the wrong house has been found guilty of stealing a vacuum cleaner after a jury rejected his story.
Lewis Jones was disturbed as he searched a hallway cupboard of a house in Kendal Close, Exeter, after the two women who lived there left the front door open on a hot summer's day in May.
They heard him rummaging downstairs and shouted at him to ask what he was doing and he fled carrying a Hoover and a red umbrella.
They chased him and he dropped the stolen items before outpacing them and diving into a friend's house in nearby Spinney Close.
Jones claimed he was high on drink and drugs and mistook the victims' house for one where he had been staying and had access to a communal vacuum cleaner.
He told the jury that he staggered into the house even though it had a different number and was in a different street, and panicked when he was disturbed.
Kitchen porter Jones, aged 19, whose address at the time was Pippin Close, Exeter, denied burglary but was found guilty after just an hour by a jury at Exeter Crown Court.
Recorder Mr Don Tait adjourned for a pre sentence and told Jones:"It was a good try but it didn't work. The jury were sensible enough to see through your story.
"They convicted you on the clearest possible evidence, despite the amount you had drink and the drugs you had taken.
"You are only 19 and are not unknown to the courts although this is a step up as far as seriousness is concerned. Burglary of people's homes is always serious and can carry a prison sentence even if it is in daytime and the door was left open.
"It seems to me this was towards the lower end of the scale as far as domestic burglary is concerned but possibly still passes the custody threshold.
"I have heard enough about you to suggest you are not beyond redemption even though I have not been impressed by the way you have approached these proceedings."
During a short trial the jury heard how the two women at the house chased Jones after catching him red handed as he took the vacuum cleaner from the cupboard.
He gave a bizarre account of events in which he said he had been drinking and taking drugs for hours before the raid and did not know where he was or what he was doing.
He was so confused that he thought one of the people who chased him was a man, even though they were both women.
He said:" I thought it was 13 Blackboy Road. I picked up the Hoover and then heard someone shouting at me. I froze and forgot I had the Hoover in my hand. Why should I want a Hoover?
"It wasn't burglary. It may have been drunk and disorderly but it wasn't burglary. I just went to the wrong house. I did not know where I was or what I was doing."
Mr Brian Fitzherbert, defending, asked for a probation report and said Jones is cleaning up his act.
He said:"We have heard of the chaotic lifestyle and how he was living at the time but there have been developments and he now has a permanent address and will be receiving housing benefit and seeking kitchen work."
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