A MIDLAND dad captured a burglar minutes after he fled his flat and held him until police arrived.

Glyn Bourne spotted thief Steven Powell heading up the stairs outside his home in Stella Croft, Chelmsley Wood, home with full carrier bags.

Powell, of Chelsea House, Kingshurst, denied burgling Mr Bourne’s property when confronted.

But the victim recognised the thief was wearing his daughter’s baseball cap so insisted his neighbour ring the police

Powell, 32, was jailed for 21 months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to carrying out the burglary.

Prosecutor Nigel Wilkins said that Mr Bourne suspected Powell was responsible as soon as he discovered his lounge window had been smashed and his property had been raided on March 19.

He found him hiding in a corner and confronted him at the top of the stairs.

In the bags, and in a nearby recycling bin, was property from the burgled flat including a DVD player, a camera, toiletries, a wallet and other items.

Powell, who tested positive for opiates and cocaine, was arrested, but denied carrying out the burglary and claimed he was passing when someone he knew threw the bags out to him.

Mr Wilkins added that although Powell had previous convictions for domestic burglaries, two of them had taken place too long ago to count towards the ‘three strikes rule’, which would have led to him facing a three-year sentence.

Sophie Murray, defending, said Powell had been a heavy drug-user in the past, and had relapsed after his girlfriend had been subjected to a serious attack.

But she said he was now engaging with the drug authorities again.

Jailing Powell, Judge Trevor Faber told him: “I give you credit for the fact that you have, since being given bail, gone on an in-patient treatment course and got yourself off drugs.”