A Winchester burglar has been given one last chance to get his life on track by a crown court judge.

Peter Evans, 43, of Stanmore Lane, Stanmore, pleaded guilty to raiding a house on the same street on July 23.

Judge Andrew Barnett gave him three months to sort himself out or face a prison stretch when he appeared at Winchester Crown Court.

He said he was taking a "tremendous risk" by deferring sentencing on Evans until November 12.

Judge Barnett told Evans: "I am taking a fairly exceptional course. During that three months I want you to keep out of trouble because if you commit any further offences you will be referred to me and go to prison."

The court heard that Evans had an extensive record for burglary and also had a drink problem which he has been ordered to address.

Before the burglary in July he had been succeeding in putting his criminal past behind him.

While in prison in Wales in the late-1990s, he struck up a relationship with a Winchester woman. After starting off as pen-pals, she began visiting Evans in jail and he moved to Winchester to live with her and her two children upon his release.

The court heard that he immersed himself in family life until he fell off a ladder in February this year and could not work for three months.

Defending, Rachel Robertson said: "That had the effect of leading him back to drinking with some ferocity and he found himself in a downward spiral."

Giving Evans one final lifeline, Judge Barnett said: "I suggest you go back to her and continue to make the progress you seemed to be since 1999."

The Judge was told that at about 4.30pm on July 23, the owners of a property in Stanmore Lane returned home to find their back door had been forced open and a trail of blood through the house.

A green army kit bag, a PlayStation 2, a DVD player, alcohol and perfume had been stolen.

About two hours later PC Tim O'Brien, of Winchester police station, found Evans lying drunk in bushes in the parkbehind Somers Close, Stanmore.

He was surrounded by items stolen in the burglary, which he later admitted taking.