A man with a drug problem broke into a Worcester house at night while the occupants were asleep.

But as Thomas Quill searched a bedroom for goods to steal, the owner's girlfriend awoke in an adjoining room and heard him.

Rachel Draper heard drawers being searched and from a window she saw Quill leaving the premises in Canterbury Road carrying a bin liner.

Her boyfriend, Warren Joyce, challenged Quill outside but he went into a house a few doors away, Alex Warren, prosecuting, told Worcester Crown Court.

In a bizarre twist, he later returned some of the stolen property and claimed he had found it, Mr Warren said.

Five months earlier, Quill headbutted a doorman at a Worcester nightclub.

Quill, aged 25, of Ombersley Road, Worcester, was jailed for two years. He pleaded guilty to burglary, assaulting John Bullock and causing him actual bodily harm and twice failing to surrender to bail.

Judge John Cavell said it was easy to imagine the trauma of hearing a burglar rummaging around in the middle of the night.

Quill told police he found it hard to recollect the raid on May 5 because he had swallowed pills.

The woman, who had been out with Quill that night, ordered him to remove the property from her home. It included a PlayStation console, games and DVDs.

Quill caused trouble for a disc jockey at Bamboo in Tybridge Street on December 28 last year before being ejected and launching a headbutt at Mr Bullock, said Mr Warren.

Quill had drunk 10 pints of lager prior to the violence and had previous convictions for assault, affray and drugs.

Carolyn Kenyon-Jackson, defending, said drugs were at the root of his problems. He committed the break-in on impulse.

She said he thought he had been unfairly thrown out of the club but was the worse for drink.