A shoeless burglar crept into a man’s bedroom and took his trousers.

Ronald Strongman, 30, of Baldwin Street near Old Street, admitted burgling the house of Christopher Rieusset in Hamilton Park, Highbury, and was jailed for two years.

London Sessions Court heard Mr Rieusset, a greengrocer, went to bed and left his trousers beside his bed.

At 3.30am, his wife was woken by a crash downstairs. Mr Rieusset found the trousers had disappeared. They had been moved to the dining room. Meanwhile, £91 worth of property (the equivalent of £2,000 today) had been stolen.

He phoned police, who spotted a suspicious vehicle in nearby Whistler Street. When signalled to stop, two men jumped out and ran. One got away, but Strongman, wearing no shoes, was caught.

His shoes were found in Mr Rieusset’s back garden.