TWO burglars were caught leaving a home with stolen loot as the shocked householder returned.

Cheryl Bragg had left her Windermere Road property in Whitehaven locked but partially insecure while staying with a friend.

On June 27, Miss Bragg learned there was someone in her house.

The intruders were heavily-convicted duo Daniel James Bullock, 28, and 34-year-old Naomi Ann Nicholson.

Miss Bragg initially attended but couldn’t open her front door.

She then left to get friends.

“Upon her return she observed both defendants emerge from the front door of her property,” prosecutor Richard Bennett told Carlisle Crown Court.

“Miss Nicholson was carrying a television.

“Both defendants were carrying carrier bags.”

While being chased, Nicholson dropped the television.

Police later found her and Bullock in the garden of her mother’s Windermere Road home.

Left “nervous” and “stressed”, Miss Bragg later stated: “I hate the thought that people have been inside my house whilst I have not been around.

“All I want to do is live a happy life.”

Nicholson, now of Windermere Road, Whitehaven, and homeless Bullock admitted burglary.

Bullock - twice previously convicted of house burglaries - also admitted illegal knife possession.

David Thompson, for Nicholson, said she’d expressed a determination to remain drug and crime-free having “let down” the victim - previously a “good and supportive friend”.

In a letter, Nicholson had tried “to express his she feels about it”, said Mr Thompson.

“The remorse she feels, but her wish to her apologise unreservedly to Miss Bragg, not only for the burglary but also the consequential feelings it has caused,” he added.

Bullock - who was hoping to improve his mental health through treatment - was jailed for almost two-and-a-half years.

Nicholson - who’d spent time in custody on remand - had an eight-month prison term suspended for 12 months.

She must complete rehabilitation and a three-month night-time curfew.