A PROLIFIC burglar interrupted by a family as he attempted to steal jewellery from their home was tackled by their neighbour as he tried to escape, a court has heard.

Ian Paul Collins of Sea View Road in Parkstone, Poole, pleaded guilty to one charge of burglary and was sentenced at Bournemouth Crown Court, where he was handed a 876-day prison term, and ordered to pay a £900 criminal courts charge and a £120 victim surcharge.

The court heard how 35-year-old Collins used a rock to smash a front door pane at the home in Poole on July 4, for "no other reason than the lights were off" said Ellie Fargin, prosecuting.

The family, including two daughters aged seven and nine, returned home around 10.30pm and noticed the glass. The father went inside leaving his wife and daughters, who cannot be named due to court reporting restrictions, outside.

Collins, who was in the master bedroom raiding valuable and sentimental jewellery, jumped out of the window onto the garage.

The homeowner shouted at him to come down, and he climbed back in the window, then tried to escape out the front door.

A neighbour alerted by the commotion, "grabbed the defendant and detained him until the police arrive," added Miss Fargin. The bag containing the jewellery was found inside the property.

Reading from victim impact statements, Miss Fargin told the court how the girls were "teary and anxious" and became "filled with terror and panic" when they heard their father shouting.

They "are now scared to go upstairs on their own" and the youngest "won't sleep in her own room."

The father's statement included a description of a moment at the dinner table when he saw tears streaming down his youngest daughter's face.

"She said, 'what if he comes back?' It broke my heart. I wish I could make my girls feel safe again."

The court was told that Collins had been a heroin addict from the age of 14 and, on the evening of the crime, ran into men to whom he owed an £800 drug debt, who told him they would "do him, unless he got the money."

Collins, who was released from prison in March this year, has multiple burglaries on his record - twice breaching the 'three strikes' minimum sentencing threshold. He was handed down a three year sentence - minus 20 per cent for his early guilty plea.