A former church youth worker was snapped on camera snatching precious jewellery during a break-in at a neighbour's home.

Heartless Richard Holdsworth, who also previously ran a Narcotics Anonymous group, targeted the property in Sandwich knowing it was unoccupied.

Canterbury Crown Court heard one of the residents had died and the other was living in a care home.

Dad of six Holdsworth, who has more than 80 crimes to his name, had been using the house in Fordwich Place - just a three-minute walk from his own - to hide from bailiffs.

But when he "succumbed to temptation" on October 3 last year, the 56-year-old crook was confronted and photographed by another neighbour as he fled with a bin bag, holdall and Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Among his loot were treasured wedding and engagement rings as well as personal documents including passports, post and bank details.

Prosecutor Ben Irwin told the court the neighbour was at home at about 11.30am when, knowing the circumstances of his next-door neighbours' house, became suspicious on hearing noises coming from the property.

He then saw Holdsworth going into the house and leaving with his swag.

"The man challenged the defendant. He asked 'What you up to mate?' to be told 'Nothing mate'," said the prosecutor.

"The man said 'You are clearly up to something. What you doing?', for the defendant to reply 'It's complicated', before saying he was doing a favour for his uncle."

But it was as Holdsworth made his escape up a ladder and over a garden fence that the quick-thinking neighbour took several photos of him.

With the break-in reported to police and the images handed over, officers were able to identify the culprit and tracked him down to his girlfriend's address.

Mr Irwin said Holdsworth still had some of the stolen possessions with him but refused to answer questions about them when interviewed.

The break-in was said to have "deeply impacted" the homeowners' family.

"There was a substantial degree of loss to the victims of items of both sentimental and personal value," added the prosecutor.

Holdsworth, of Honfleur Road, later pleaded guilty to burglary, as well as possessing cocaine found in his custody cell following his arrest and breaching an 18-month suspended sentence order imposed in August 2022 for two commercial break-ins.

The court heard the long-term drug addict has 34 previous convictions for 85 offences, including 52 for dishonesty and theft.

But during a 20-year period where he managed to kick his habit, Holdsworth had not only worked for a church youth group but also founded and ran NA sessions in Deal for several years, which included visiting prisons to give talks to inmates.

He was said to have succumbed to cocaine again, however, following a car crash in 2014 in which he suffered a serious head injury and had to learn to walk again.

At the time of his latest offences he was also heavily in debt and at risk of losing his home, said his lawyer Phil Rowley.

"His own property was a very short distance from the location of the burglary and so it was known to him it was unoccupied and had been for some considerable time since July 2022," he told the court.

"He quite candidly admits he had taken to using it as a place to hide from bailiffs when they came to his home.

"His primary reason for entering that day was to hide but he accepts he succumbed to temptation and took the items from the property."

Jailing Holdsworth for two-and-a-half years on Friday (January 5), Recorder Duncan Atkinson KC told him it was "to his very great credit" that in the time he had weaned himself off cocaine he became "a positive advocate" for others to do the same.

But he said any domestic burglary, even when a property was unoccupied, was "a violation" for the homeowners.

"While the presence of the occupier on the premises is to be considered an aggravating feature (on sentencing), offences of domestic burglary are taken seriously because of the violation they represent of someone's home. That violation did occur here," the judge told Holdsworth.

"It is clear the family of those who had lived there are very distressed, not only because their home had been violated at a time when one was deceased and the other taken into care but because items personal to them left in their home had been taken by you.

"It is that which makes the offence of domestic burglary serious and why this offence by you is serious."