A PROLIFIC burglar tricked a teenage girl into thinking he was her landlord, a court heard.

Michael Lee, 56, a drug addict with a lengthy record of burglaries and thefts, was jailed for a year last week after raiding the girl's home on two occasions.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard how on the first occasion, on March 23 this year, the teenage daughter of a couple living in Wheaton Road discovered Lee trying to climb through the kitchen window.

Prosecutor Robert Reid said: "At the time she didn't register that he was a burglar, she made an assumption that it must have been the landlord who had lost his key and was trying to get into the property. Eventually she handed him the key.

"She asked if he was the landlord. He said yes."

Lee stole a Kindle on that occasion, the court heard, but returned to the same property days later on March 31, breaking a window to gain entry and stealing a Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Detectives investigating the crime were able to track down both items in local branches of Cash Converters and Cash Generators and through this Lee was arrested.

Mr Reid said the girl had been very upset on learning she had been duped.

"Having inadvertently traumatised a young girl on the first occasion it is perhaps reprehensible to go back there on the second occasion," he said.

Lee, of no fixed abode, admitted two counts of burglary and asked for further seven burglaries of commercial properties to be taken into consideration.

These included the theft of cash from Tom's Nursery in Bournemouth, the BCHA's St Swithun's House, St Swithun's Church and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, where he also lifted bank cards and a mobile phone while admitted as a patient.

In mitigation, Kevin Hill said his client's record of crimes dating back to the 1970s, including burglaries, assaults and thefts, was a result of his drug problem.

"There was a long gap between 2002 and 2015 where he had dealt with his drug addiction from when he was younger," said Mr Hill.

"He got married, had a family and was working full time.

"His relationship broke down in 2014 and he became homeless. He went onto benefits but these were stopped.

"His father passed away in that period. Everything spiralled out of control for him."

He said Lee was "ashamed" of his actions and keen to take advantage of a rehabilitation programme in prison.