TWO public-spirited builders who pursued a burglar have been commended by a Crown Court Judge.

Stephen Worrall and Chris Forshaw spotted a man acting suspiciously near a house in Four Acres Road, Bebington, and went to investigate.

The man, Dennis O'Brien, had broken into the house so they went in after him, but he jumped out of a bedroom window and ran off, said Mr Stuart Mills, prosecuting.

A passer-by stopped O'Brien but he threw a punch at him and fled. Mr Forshaw and Mr Worrall gave chase for some considerable distance until Mr Forshaw managed to catch and detain him.

There was a struggle during which O'Brien threatened Mr Forshaw but he detained him until the police arrived and arrested him.

He told officers: "The front door was open. I went in and took a chance."

O'Brien, 35, of Stonefield Road, Liverpool, pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to burglary with intent.

He also admitted breaking into a house in Prescot three months earlier on April 23, and another burglary in Huyton on December 9.

Jailing him for a total of three years and three months, Judge Gerard Clifton told O'Brien, who was on licence from prison at the time of the offences: "You may not be a successful burglar but you are persistent."

He awarded Mr Forshaw and Mr Worrall £200 each for their 'foresight, courage and public spiritedness'.

"It would have been very easy to ignore what they had seen and they deserve to be rewarded by the court," said Judge Clifton.

Miss Teresa Loftus, defending, said that the burglaries were 'unpremeditated and unsophisticated and had been opportunistic offences'.

She said that drugs had a stranglehold on him for a long time and in the last 20 years he had spent more time in prison than free.

He has sought help for psychological problems but last Summer an old £2,000 drug debt came back to haunt him and he carried out the offences to try to pay it back and feed his own habit.

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