Jamie Lee Cambourn was caught red-handed when police – alerted by a witness – arrived at the house around 9.30am and peered through a window, only to see Cambourn carrying a bag of stolen items through the master bedroom.

Upon spotting police outside, Cambourn immediately dumped the bag and fled out a rear sliding door, jumping a rear fence into a neighbouring property before coming to a parallel street.

Police caught up with him in a nearby street and placed him under arrest.

At the time he was wearing gloves and had a bumbag containing a 12cm-long knife and a syringe.

A search of his pockets uncovered a small green jewellery box containing earrings, plus three sets of car and house keys and a screwdriver.

When asked where the items had come from, Cambourn told police “from that house I was in”.

A police check revealed Cambourn had only been released from prison on July 14 after serving a lengthy jail term for unrelated matters.

He confessed immediately to the crime in a subsequent interview, telling police he’d left his home that morning “to find a house to rob”.

He told officers he knocked on the door of the house in question to see if anyone was home and when no one responded, he jumped a side fence and forced open a sliding door to get inside the premises.

He said he then went through each of the rooms putting various items into the bag including a laptop computer, iPad and mobile phones.

The court heard the witness who saw Cambourn enter the house knew he didn’t live there and had called police.

Cambourn was charged with aggravated break and enter and remanded in custody.

He pleaded guilty to the charge in court on Wednesday.

Magistrate Darryl Pearce adjourned to matter for sentencing in the District Court.