A BURGLAR fled after waking up a female student who mistook him for a housemate, a court heard.

The girl, who lived in a house with other students in London Road, High Wycombe, mistook William French, 28, for a fellow student because when she saw him he apologised and then left.

French, of Bowerdean Road, High Wycombe, who appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court on Tuesday, was jailed after admitting burgling the rented house on July 17 last year.

Barnaby Evans, prosecuting, said when the student awoke she assumed he was a housemate butshe discovered a downstairs toilet window had been forced.

Mr Evans said police lifted French's fingerprints from the scene of the break-in which French admitted entering as a trespasser with intent to steal.

Mr Evans said that at an earlier hearing French also pleaded guilty to receiving property stolen in a burglary in Totteridge Road, High Wycombe, on October 4.

At the time of the crimes, French was on parole following release from aprison term imposed in 1998 for dishonesty.

Judge Roger Connor sent French back to jail to serve six months of his outstanding sentence, 30 months consecutive for burglary and 12 months concurrent and handling stolen property a total of three years imprisonment.

February 14, 2002 13:38