A BURGLAR was reported to police by his own mother after she found stolen loot in their home.

Carlisle Crown Court heard 38-year-old Brian Holliday returned to crime in late May this year while released from prison on licence following a previous violent robbery.

Holliday had been given a 49-month jail sentence by a judge early in 2021 along with an accomplice after the pair wielded an axe and crowbar as they raided a Workington convenience store.

But he was brought back to court after a burglary occurred in the town overnight on May 29-30.

At that time, a father and son had left their home insecure because there was a problem locking a door of their address.

“When they returned home the next day, some time around 4.30pm, they discovered the back door was open and a television had been moved,” said prosecutor Matthew Hopkins. “A number of items had been stolen.”

These included a PlayStation 5, hundreds of pounds’ cash, aftershave, trainers, a watch and drill. “These items had been taken from various rooms, both upstairs and down,” said Mr Hopkins.

“On May 31 the defendant’s own mother contacted the police to say she had found some stolen property in her son’s bedroom. She had apparently found out about this burglary on Facebook.”

The items included a sofa cushion cover — believed to have been used to carry away the loot — and also some cables from the PS5. The console and other more expensive items were not there.

Mr Hopkins added of the mother: “She told police her son was back to taking drugs again.”

Holliday was arrested and brought to court, where he admitted one offence of burglary.

Defence lawyer Marion Weir, mitigating, said: “The offence itself is one of which the defendant has little memory. He had relapsed into a drug problem which had previously plagued him.”

Holliday had made positive progress and remained drug-free following his release from the robbery jail term on licence. But a fallout with his parents prompted the relapsed and a return to crime.

“He saw an opportunity and, sadly, took it and finds himself back before the court for a serious offence — the first offence of burglary on his record,” said Ms Weir. “This is a defendant who can show and live a law-abiding life. There are long periods in which he has not bothered the courts.”

For what Recorder Julian Shaw called an “opportunistic burglary”, Holliday, of Cranbourne Street, Workington, received an immediate 14-month prison sentence.

“Your mother sadly had to do what no parent wishes to do, which was to report you to the police with the somewhat forlorn explanation that you had returned to your drug-taking ways.”