A judge told a prolific offender that he was approaching becoming a 'career' burglar as he jailed him for two years for an attempted break-in.

Darren Broome, 40, formerly of Great Yarmouth, had only been released from prison for six weeks for a previous burglary when he attempted to break in to a house in Arundel Road, Great Yarmouth.

Martin Ivory, prosecuting at Norwich Crown Court, said that Broome had tried to burgle the home while the owners were out, but gave up after he was unsuccessful.

However, when the owners returned, they noticed the gate had been left open and then saw tool marks had been left on some of the windows of their property.

Mr Ivory said they also noticed that the cat flap had been tampered with and realised they had been victim to an attempted break-in and phoned police.

Mr Ivory said that Broome was also caught on a neighbour's CCTV approaching the property and trying to get in to burgle the home.

Mr Ivory said that Broome had 23 convictions for 78 offences many of which were for dishonesty and burglary and said that since this latest offence he had been recalled to prison.

Broome admitted attempted burglary on March 5, this year.

Jailing him, Judge Anthony Bate told Broome: 'You have a poor record. You have a number of previous convictions for burglary and you are approaching becoming a career burglar.'

He said his poor record was an aggravating feature in this latest offence as he said it was just six weeks after he had been released from a 30 month prison sentence for burglary and despite efforts made to help he had gone on to re-offend while still on licence.

Danielle O'Donovan, for Broome, said that when he was released from prison he failed to get the support he needed and relapsed into taking drugs.

She said despite his efforts he was unable to secure any work and did not have access to benefits as there was a delay in sorting them out.

'He was entirely without funds,' she added.

She said he was now realising that his past record was a barrier to him living a normal life.

'He feels trapped by his circumstances and that is making it more and more difficult for him to lead a normal law-abiding life.'.

Ms O'Donovan added that he wanted to try not to re-offend on his release.