A PROLIFIC criminal stole £4,000 worth of watches and electricals from a house after scaling scaffolding and climbing in through a first floor window.

Bradley Chapman, who has at least 25 previous convictions, broke into all the locked bedrooms, causing damage to the house before pocketing the items and then leaving through the back door.

Yesterday Chapman, of Honeysuckle Road, was jailed for three years.

The 30-year-old had pleaded guilty to burgling the home on Nile Road, Southampton, between August 19 and August 20 this year and stealing £4,000 worth of possessions.

None of the property, which included laptops and an expensive Omega Sea Master watch, has been recovered.

Officers from the Operation Hawk team arrested and charged Chapman on September 1 after crime scene investigators matched his DNA to a swab taken from a glove mark at the scene.

PC Charlie Buckingham, from the Operation Hawk team at Southampton Central Police Station, said: “Burglary is an intrusive crime that not only leaves victims with a financial loss but an emotional loss too.

“Officers within the Operation Hawk team are dedicated to identifying those who are intent on impacting on people’s lives in this way for their own selfish, criminal gain.

“We are committed to getting justice and that means we ensure we gather the best evidence we can to put before the courts and support victims through the entire process.”

It is not the first time Chapman has targeted accommodation in the city.

In March 2014 he received an 18-month suspended sentence after breaking into student digs and trying to steal a £1,400 computer in Portswood.

Again his DNA was found at the scene, with the judge warning him that it was his last chance or he would spend much of his life in prison.