A HOUSEBREAKER who targeted a sheriff's home and left with almost £30,000 of jewellery has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

Michael Houston broke into Maxwell Hendry's £600,000 terraced house while the sheriff and his wife were on holiday.

Neighbours alerted the police when they heard the couple's house alarm go off and footsteps inside the ­four-bedroom property on Kirklee Road in Glasgow's Kelvindale.

Houston was caught when his DNA was found on the handle of a set of drawers in the main bedroom.

The 40-year-old from Maryhill, pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to a string of charges between October 2012 and November 2013, including breaking into four houses on Kirklee Road, Partickhill Road, Highburgh Road and Lancefield Quay and then stealing various different items.