A Winchester serial burglar with more than 70 previous convictions is behind bars today after being jailed at the city's crown courts.

Paul Coppard was jailed after admitting five more offences to add to his long record, including a raid on a pensioner's house just before midnight last New Year's Eve.

Coppard, 35, had already pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary, one attempted burglary, one burglary non-dwelling, one charge of theft and one of handling when he was sentenced by Judge William Taylor at Winchester Crown Court.

The court heard how Coppard, of no fixed address, had broken into the elderly woman's house on St James' Terrace after smashing a window to get in.

The lady had woken the next morning to find bloodstains by her windowsill and subsequent DNA testing showed the blood belonged to Coppard.

Coppard also carried out another burglary on the same night, this time hitting the Warner Solicitors office on Jewry Street in the city centre.

Again Coppard got in through a broken window and left DNA evidence behind at the scene, though this time he claimed he had got in to find somewhere to sleep - despite police finding a hoard of electrical items gathered together as though they were about to be taken.

Coppard was also sentenced on a charge of handling stolen goods - after he stole a mountain bike from a 13-year-old pupil at Winchester College and was later stopped by police riding the £500 machine around the city centre, and theft for stealing a minidisc player from another college pupil.

A fifth sentence was also handed out for the burglary of a house in Christchurch Road in Winchester in May this year.

The owner had come back from holiday to find police officers in her front room who told her she had been burgled and more than £500 worth of jewellery taken. Again Coppard was caught after leaving blood by the window he had broken to gain entry and DNA evidence proving it was him.

Sentencing him to two-and-a-half years for the burglaries, along with nine months concurrent for the other offences, Judge William Taylor told Coppard: "You are still only 35-years-old, yet prior to today you have already made some 69 appearances before the court in the last 19-years.

"I give you credit for your pleas, but the reality is that apart from being caught red-handed and night with stolen material, you left your blood at the scene of the offences so you had little option but to plead.

"I regret there's no other way to deal with you today than jail, because of the seriousness of the offences.

"But, I urge that on you release, the probation service be ordered to give you support to ensure you don't fall back into drug misuse and crime."