A ‘career thief’ who broke into the homes of two pensioners within an hour during a daylight ‘burglary spree’ has been put behind bars.<br />Lee Hepplewhite crept into the bedroom of an 80-year-old woman, through her unlocked front door, and took a computer monitor, while she was inside the<br />house in South Shields, in March. Around an hour later, on the same afternoon, the 36-year-old serial criminal, who has 114 convictions, smashed a patio door panel and got into the kitchen of a retired couple on the same street. He caused £300 damage but did not manage to steal anything.<br />Prosecutor Neil Pallister told Newcastle Crown Court: "It was two houses in the same street within an hour or so. He had clearly gone out on a burglary spree."<br />The court heard a resident who lives nearby had noticed Hepplewhite acting suspiciously in the area and took a video recording of him on a mobile phone<br />then contacted the police
