AN ELDERLY woman who usually needs a chairlift to get down the stairs chased a burglar downstairs alone after watching as he crept from a study in her Bournemouth home.

The woman, who is in her 80s, woke to go to the bathroom at 6.15am on Wednesday, August 21.

As she walked into the upstairs hallway of her home in East Overcliff Drive, she spotted a man leaving the study.

When he spotted the woman, who needs hearing aids and doesn't wear them to bed, he pulled his hood over his face and ran down the stairs.

The victim usually needs the assistance of a stair chair. However, she followed the burglar downstairs without the chair. She saw him open the rear kitchen door and run across the back garden and out of sight.

She then saw the kitchen window had been smashed and realised the intruder had searched her home as she slept. A number of items had been stolen, including her hearing aids, silverware, a handbag and a purse, an Apple MacBook, a Kindle Fire and some jewellery.

Police rushed to the scene and interviewed the woman, who provided a description of the man she had seen. Officers called town centre CCTV operators and launched a search for the man.

Crime scene investigators attended and found a number of fingerprints at the point of entry, as well as a jumper that had been left behind by the offender and a DNA sample from a smashed wine bottle found at the rear of the address.

A fingerprint from the inside window sill later came back as a positive match for Andrew Thompson, who is 40 and of no fixed abode.

Thompson was arrested on Thursday, August 22. Officers searched his rucksack and found handwritten notes which included the victim's password for her Kindle, as well as other log-on details.

The victim confirmed she had written the password out.

One of the victim’s bank cards was used at McDonald's in Boscombe shortly after the burglary and Thompson was seen on CCTV at the self-service kiosk at the time of the transaction.

In court Thompson said he committed the offence to pay for a drug debt.

Last week, Thompson appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court to admit burglary. He was jailed for three years and four months.

Detective Constable Chris Raspini, of Dorset Police’s priority Crime Team, said: “Andrew Thompson targeted his victim in the very place she should have felt safe.

"Burglary crimes have a significant and long-lasting impact on victims and we will do everything we can to identify offenders and bring them before the court.”