A BURGLAR who stole presents from a family home on Christmas Eve while the owner was at church has been locked up for two years.

Cocaine addict Ross Kelly, 21, smashed his way into the house in Falstones, Basildon, last Christmas and grabbed the gifts from under the festive tree.

Kelly made off with a stash of booze, jewellery and gift-wrapped presents, worth £800, during the afternoon break-in.

But homeless Kelly, formerly of Armada Close, Basildon, left his blood on the kitchen door curtains after cutting himself while smashing a glass panel to get in.

He tried to wash off the blood with soap, but the mistake led to Kelly being arrested. He admitted the crime.

Yesterday, Kelly sat in the dock at Basildon Crown Court to be sentenced for two burglaries.

He was given 15 months for the Christmas Eve break-in and a further nine months for a burglary committed in Lain-don last October, to which he also pleaded guilty. In mitigation, Kelly said he had committed the offences largely due to his dependency on drugs and alcohol.

However, Recorder Simon Spence told him: "It was a particularly mean and despicable thing for anyone to do and what made it worse was that you committed the offence while you were out on bail.

"You left blood on the victim's curtains and you stole gift-wrapped presents from under the tree.

"I don't know whether you've had time to reflect on how you would have felt if they had been your family's presents."

Kelly has spent 94 days on remand.