A REPEAT Carlisle offender with almost 150 previous offences on his record is back behind bars after he tried to break into an unoccupied house.

In full view of astonished neighbours at Harraby Green Road, 34-year-old Simon Highmore brazenly tried to get into the house before then trying the handle of a parked car nearby as the vehicle's owner watched.

He admitted attempted burglary, vehicle interference, and possessing two class B drugs – amphetamine and cannabis.

At the city’s crown court, prosecutor Gerard Rogerson outlined the facts.

A woman who lives on the street reported arriving home in her daughter's car at 3.50pm on September 12 and noticing Highmore walking out of the garden of a house where the occupier had recently died.

The property was at the time up for sale.  “He looked off his face,” was the woman's description of Highmore in her statement.

She then saw the defendant looking through the windows of her nearby parked car for a few minutes before he tried the car's door.  “He seemed oblivious to her presence,” said Mr Rogerson.

It was clear that Highmore had tried to get into the house he had visited. The defendant also appeared to be talking to himself.

Highmore then approached the woman’s house, peering through a window and then crouching down. That was when she decided to call the police because she was panicking, said Mr Rogerson.

When police arrived, they found Highmore, formerly of Melbourne Road but more recently of London Road, Carlisle, was carrying a small quantity of drugs consistent with personal use.

Mr Rogerson told the court: “Mr Highmore has an extensive record of convictions, with 148 offences on his record and a long history of dishonesty. There are 108 thefts and other matters of dishonesty.”

Since his arrest, Highmore had been recalled to prison to serve out the remainder of an earlier jail term.

Andrew Evans, defending, said the attempted burglary was probably the least planned and least well-organised failed burglary the court had seen for weeks. Highmore was due to remain in jail until the end of next year.

Recorder Julian Shaw told Highmore that he would spend his 35th birthday in jail. “You have a truly shocking record, doubtless the result of chronic addictions to various substances,” the judge told him.

The Recorder imposed a two-month jail term, though this would not affect the length of the defendant’s present spell in custody, given the remaining period of his licence that he will have to serve.