A MAN who broke into a Pontypool house and was found asleep in the owner’s spare bedroom has been sent to prison.

Matthew Waters, 30, of no fixed abode, appeared before Newport Crown Court charged with burglary.

The court heard how he broke into the property on Crumlin Road, Pontypool, on September 9 last year at around 3pm, while the owners, Neil and Julie James, were at work.

He was spotted by a neighbour on top of scaffolding at the property, which was there because the owners has been having work done to the chimney.

When questioned,Waters replied that he was working on the roof, so the neighbour decided to keep on eye on him but when Waters disappeared, he thought he had gone.

When Mr James returned home, the neighbour told him about the defendant spotted on the scaffolding.

Mr James then noticed that the blinds on the patio doors had been moved and the door was unlocked, and inside an ornament on the mantelpiece was lying on its side.

Next, Mrs James returned home with her two young grandchildren, and took them upstairs to use the toilet.

They found Waters asleep on the bed in the spare room and Mrs James screamed, which woke Waters up, who is said to have looked stunned and got up and left the property.

The couple saw that a tub of ice-cream had been left on the work top with a spoon in it and the contents gone. Nothing else had been taken. The police were called but the court heard that the defendant was hard to track down. It was after a crime watch appeal was launched that on February 3 this year he was spotted by police.

Waters admitted going in to the property in a highly intoxicated state following a house party.

The court was read a letter from Mrs James outlining how panicked she was upon finding the defendant and that her grandchildren began crying.

“Since this, when I come home from work, I take a poker from the grate and check all the rooms and for weeks after the incident I could not sleep for thinking that someone may break in,” the letter continued.

Recorder Nigel Thomas described the defendant as a “nuisance”.

He added: “I think that any dwelling house burglary is a very serious matter and was very scary for Mrs James who found you and had no idea of how you would react when you woke up.”

Waters was sentences to eight months imprisonment, reduced from 12 months for an early guilty plea, and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £100.