A BURGLAR whose partner reported him to the police said he was "grateful" to her for doing so, a court was told.

Colin Jeffery, aged 38, was sentenced at Dorchester Crown Court after admitting two offences of burglary and two of theft.

Prosecutor Nicholas Robinson told the court that the first burglary offence took place at a property in Draper Road, Bournemouth, on July 7 last year and saw the defendant steal a games console, £30 cash, jewellery and other items as well as damaging a window to force entry.

Three weeks later Jeffery, of Mayfair Gardens, Bournemouth, committed a further burglary at a home in Magna Road, Canford Magna.

Mr Robinson said the homeowners had been away for the weekend and returned to find their bedroom had been "ransacked" and jewellery, two cameras and expensive items of clothing were missing.

The theft charges involved a shoplifting offence at Boots Pharmacy in Bournemouth and the theft of a gold ring worth £469 from Cash Recycle.

Mr Robinson said Jeffery had a total of 37 previous convictions for 67 offences, including five convictions for burglary since 1999.

Leslie Smith, mitigating, said his client had a history of drug issues but had managed to get away from addiction from 2013 and had got his life back on track before his father died last year.

As a result of his dad's death Jeffery was diagnosed with depression and prescribed addictive anti-depressant drugs by his GP, who was unaware of his history of drug addiction.

Mr Smith said to Jeffery's "disgrace and shame" he quickly progressed from the prescribed drugs back onto heroin, which prompted his relapse in offending.

He said: "He comes to the attention of police after his partner phoned them about him, saying where he was, what crimes he had committed and where he could be found.

"He is so grateful to his partner for doing this, he said 'she saved my life, she stopped me committing further offences and stopped the victim impact I have caused'."

The court was told Jeffery had been in prison on remand since August last year and had done "everything available to him" to get clean of drugs.

Judge Jonathan Fuller said because of those efforts he would be sentencing Jeffery to a community order for two years, with a drug rehabilitation requirement of six months and an activity requirement for 20 days.

He warned the defendant: "You realise if you fail as you have failed in the past you will come back here and receive a substantial prison sentence."