A MAN on early release from prison is back behind bars after he was caught breaking into a house and held until police arrived.

Tommy Burton, 33, who has been inside almost all of his adult life, was being moved out of a hostel he had been placed in by probation when he went out stealing.

Burton was off his head on legal high spice and booze when he sneaked into a house and stole a laptop.

But Burton, who has a history of violent crime and burglary, was grabbed by the householder and passers-by and held until the police arrived.

Now he has been jailed for 30 months after a judge heard he was a three-strike burglar.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the householder was upstairs at his maisonette in Devizes Road, Swindon, at about 7.30pm on Wednesday, March 30.

Hearing a noise downstairs he at first thought it was the blinds rattling in the wind, but then went to investigate.

"He got to the bottom of the stairs and he saw a man walking out of his kitchen with a black laptop bag he recognised as his own," he said.

"The intruder said he had not done anything, there was then a struggle. The householder was able to detain the defendant."

He said he called out to nearby restaurant workers who called the police and joined him to stop the struggling raider getting away.

When he was arrested he was also found to have the victim's car keys and a vodka bottle he had been drinking from was inside the property.

Burton, formerly of Bridge House in Croft Road, Burton, and Hilperton, Trowbridge, pleaded guilty to burglary.

The court heard he had been jailed for numerous house raids before he got seven years in 2009 for tying up and robbing a train station worker.

He was freed in late 2013 but soon after got 28 months for house burglary, then days after his release committed a theft and three months later the latest burglary.

Peter Binder, defending, said it was an opportunistic raid as the door he went through was ajar and the victim admitted he often left it open in the evenings.

In the past 15 years he said he had been in prison for 12 and a half of them and urged the court to give him a chance in society.

He said that he has serious self-esteem problems as a result of his upbringing, having been put in foster care at a young age.

Shortly before the raid he said his time at the hostel was coming to an end and the only alternative he was being given was a Salvation Army hostel.

Jailing him Judge Peter Blair QC said: "You had this opportunity of being at Bridge Services in terms of accommodation on licence.

"It says that you were provided with an opportunity to acquire your own accommodation.

"But due to positive drug tests that was revoked and you lost motivation and returned to crime, which is something that has dogged you throughout your life.

"You face a regime which parliament had imposed on judges where if you have committed dwelling house burglary a number of times before you face a minimum three-year sentence."