A burglar's dropped van keys led police to a haul of stolen power tools.

Terence Norman was caught red-handed when a passing police patrol spotted him breaking into a garage at a house in Falmer Road, Woodingdean.

The 47-year-old then accidentally locked himself in the house and police had to smash a window to get in and arrest him.

The next day builders working at the address found a set of keys on the floor.

They passed them to Sussex Police, who traced them to Norman's van which had been impounded at Shoreham.

When they opened it up they found it was full of power tools.

Norman, from Southwark in London, told police he had been looking for similar tools in the house's garage when he was arrested on February 22.

He was sentenced to two years and five months in prison at Lewes Crown Court yesterday.

He had already been convicted of the theft of the tools found in the van.

Judge Richard Brown told Norman: "A residential burglary is always a serious matter.

"Some people never recover from the trauma of finding out their homes, being the garage or the living quarters, have been invaded by people like you."

The court heard Norman had 45 previous convictions for 94 offences.

He committed his first offence aged 12. He was convicted for two burglaries in 1975, when he was 15.

He is single and has no contact with his two grown-up daughters.

Defence barrister Richard Marsh said: "He has a very sad background. He has been in and out of prison for most of his life."

He said Norman had had drink and drug problems and became addicted to heroin while serving a sentence in Lewes Prison in the early 1990s.

Norman now claims to have beaten his addiction after taking a prison drugs programme.