The woman was ordered to complete 30 days of rehabilitation and pay a statutory charge

A mother who admitted burgling the house of a petrified elderly man was spared prison by a judge who told her that she would have gone to jail if she had been a man.

Terry Remmer, 23, broke into the house in Washington, Tyne and Wear, in August last year via a patio door, and stole a camera and other items.

Newcastle crown court was told that the man “awoke at 5am to hear someone creeping around the house. He heard items being moved and he was frightened.”

The man was too afraid to intervene so contacted his daughter. By the time she arrived with her boyfriend, Remmer had fled. She was spotted six hours later selling one of the stolen items in an electronics