A SERIAL burglar is back behind bars after being caught by eagle-eyed members of the public.

Steffan Ayres was confronted as he walked away from a house he had just raided in Axminster laden down with stolen power tools.

A motorist stopped and a passenger got out to film Ayres and his girlfriend Samantha Ravenor as they carried their loot to a waiting car.

Other locals joined in the pursuit, with one calling the police while the passenger continued filming.

The driver of the car the thieves were about to get into fled, leaving Ayres and Ravenor stranded. They were filmed returning the stolen tools to the driveway of the burgled house.

Ayres had only been released from his last sentence a few months earlier and was living in a hostel in Taunton.

He also burgled a house in Taunton the night before he his arrest in Axminster, leaving his DNA on a porch window as he broke in.

Builders were working at both the targeted properties and he has a record of stealing from empty homes to feed his drug habit.

At Exeter Crown Court, Ayres, 47, of Brookside Close, Trull, was found guilty of two burglaries and Ravenor, 42, of East Reach, Taunton, was found guilty of acting as lookout in Axminster.

Mr Recorder Roger Harris told Ayres he will receive a three-year mandatory term as a third-strike burglar when he and Ravenor are sentenced next month.

The judge remanded Ayres in custody after hearing he is suspected of carrying out another burglary on Monday night (October 2), hours before his trial began on Tuesday.

During the trial, Bathsheba Cassel, prosecuting, said the house in Cotlake Close, Taunton, was being renovated when it was burgled in March.

The front door and a garage door were forced open but the only item stolen was a can of petrol. Ayres' DNA was detected in blood left at the point of entry.

He and Ravenor were arrested the following day in Crewkerne Road, Axminster.

Ayres denied being at the house in Taunton and said he had no idea how his blood got there.

He claimed a friend who took him and Ravenor to lunch in Lyme Regis had asked them to pick up things from a driveway.

Ravenor said she knew nothing about a burglary and had taken the tools back when confronted by local people.