THIS was the devastating scene an elderly couple had to face after a burglar broke into their home while they were enjoying a luxury Mediterranean cruise.

Cutting short their holiday, they came home to find clothes and bedding strewn between rooms, their most precious items taken or smashed on the floor and personal papers pulled from every drawer.

Today the couple, in their late 70s and early 80s, are still trying to put their home of 45 years back in order after drug addict Anthony Hensman, broke in to feed his habit.

They are just two of thousands of people who fall victim to burglars in Hampshire every year and know just how it feels to find your home violated by a stranger.

Speaking anonymously to the Daily Echo as a county- wide police operation to beat the burglar was unveiled, the couple said their home will never be the same again.

“We came home and what we found is impossible to describe. Every drawer and cupboard had been opened and emptied, items were strewn everywhere. We couldn’t even get into our bedrooms and were forced to sleep downstairs.

Watch a burglar caught in the act

“We were just distraught and couldn’t take it all in at first – but it hit us more as time passed. I don’t think we will ever get everything back to how it was.”

It is people like Hensman, of Meggeson Avenue, Townhill Park, Southampton – who was jailed for three years – who police are trying to take off the streets in a threemonth dedicated clampdown on burglaries called Operation Nemesis.

Chief Constable Alex Marshall said the message should be clear to burglars: “We are out there to get you and there’s a lot of us to do it.”

The force-wide campaign began undercover earlier this month following a 15 per cent rise in burglaries between April and November last year. An aircraft has also taken to the skies and sniffer dogs deployed to track the thieves – with 147 suspects arrested so far.

One of those includes a man on remand charged with burglary after being caught on a thermal imaging camera by the air support unit as he allegedly tried to break into a house this month. When he realised he was being watched from the sky he jumped over a wall and tried to walk away but was caught by units on the ground.

Mr Marshall said the operation was tackling all types of burglary – from house to businesses and sheds and also the distraction burglars who are targeting elderly and vulnerable people across the county.

He said; “The time is right.

Burglary is beginning to go up.

The economy going down might well be connected to it, you just don’t know.

“It’s a particularly robust approach that’s about writing to the burglars, paying them visits at home and meeting and greeting them when they leave prison.”

He added that he had personally sent letters to crown court judges in Hampshire highlighting the importance of stiff sentencing for burglars.