A red-faced burglar was flushed out by police after they burst into a house he was raiding and caught him – sat on the TOILET.
Drunk Mark Johnson, 41, had his trousers round his ankles when officers rushed into the upstairs bathroom of the semi-detached home he had been seen entering.
The crook had sparked a high-speed police chase just hours before when he was caught speeding while twice over the legal limit for driving.
Although officers lost him when he went through red lights and the wrong way around a roundabout neighbours quickly reported the break-in and they rushed to the scene.
The confused home owner confirmed he did not know the stranger using his bathroom and Johnson was arrested.
Bridie Smurthwait, prosecuting, said: “Police climbed through the window and went upstairs, shouting police’.
“They woke the occupier, a 64-year-old retired man, who opened his bedroom door and shouted ‘how did you get into the house?’
“Police found the defendant sitting on the toilet with his trousers around his ankles.
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“He shouted what are you doing?’. He was drunk.”
Johnson was handed 18 months behind bars after he admitted burglary, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, failing to stop for police, using a car without insurance and while unfit through drink.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Johnson, of Sunderland, was first spotted by police when he was caught driving at more than 40mph over the speed limit on October 22.
Officers quickly pursued his Citroen Picasson on a high-speed chase through city streets but lost him after he performed a number of dangerous manoeuvres.
But within an hour of the fast pursuit – which was caught on the police cars camera – coming to an end, Johnson was spotted by a neighbour smashing a window and breaking into a house.
The commotion woke the retired householder, who came out of his bedroom to find police officers on his landing and a burglar using his bathroom.
He told police he was “disgusted” to find someone had raided his home while he was asleep.
In a statement read to court he said: “I dread to think what would have happened if the police had not arrived.”
Shaun Routledge, defending, said none of the offences Johnson committed that night were planned.
Judge Deborah Sherwin sentenced Johnson to prison and banned him from the roads for three years.
She said: “It was bad driving made worse by the fact you were over the limit.
“During the burglary it was your intention to steal something, heaven knows what.
“The householder was in the house at the time. He was asleep in bed and he was woken by the police coming into the house after you.”
