A ’stupid’ burglar has been jailed after he stole a car to get home after a drinking session and left it parked outside his front door.

Daniel Gayton, who was working in Newton Abbot, carried out four different raids on homes near where he lived in Exeter in search of keys for cars which he took for drunken rides in the middle of the night.

He crashed one of the cars in a country lane near Crediton and was finally caught when he left one outside his front door while he went inside to sleep off a drinking session.

His burglaries caused enormous inconvenience to the victims, who included a single mother who was working as a nurse. Her car was written off and her pushchair and child seat stolen from inside.

Gayton was jailed for four and a half years at Exeter Crown Court where a judge branded him as a menace to the public.

He fell foul of the three strikes and you’re out rule under which repeat burglars face minimum jail terms.

Gayton, aged 31, of Hillyfield Road, Exeter, admitted four burglaries, aggravated vehicle taking, two counts of taking a car without consent, and driving while disqualified.

The burglaries were at Roberts Road, Edgerton Park Road, Mount Pleasant Road, and Leypark Road in the last week of April and between July 10 and 13.

He was jailed for four and a half years and banned from driving for three years by Judge Erik Salomonsen.

He who told him:"You took one of the vehicles from a single mother who is a nurse with a ten-month-old child. The car was abandoned and crashed.

"You suggest these offences were all on impulse and you did not know what you were doing and there was no planning involved. At the time of these offences you were a menace to society.

"There were four night time burglaries and three cars were taken. These were not victimless crimes and I have had regard to the effect on one particular victim."

Mr Sean Brunton, prosecuting, said Gayton used car keys stolen in the raids to take a Ford Fusion from Roberts Road, a Vauxhall Adam from Edgerton Park Road, and a Suzuki from Leypark Road.

The Suzuki was found abandoned and wrecked in a country lane at Trobridge, near Crediton and one of the other cars also suffered minor damage.

Gayton also stole wallets, purses, a satnav, two laptop, charger, mobile phone, and a television during the burglaries.

Mr Brunton said the final offence was taking an Exeter University student’s Vauxhall Adam after finding the keys at her lodgings.

He said:"There was a search by the police for the stolen car and it was found in Hillyfield Road. House to house inquiries showed Gayton was staying in a building very near where the car was left. He was found asleep and arrested with some of the items stolen from the burglaries."

He told police he was drunk when he carried out all the raids and could not remember anything about them. He said alcohol made him do ’stupid random acts’.

Mr Barry White, defending, said Gayton was working at a warehouse supervisor in Newton Abbot but started drinking again after a relationship broke up.

He said:"There was no degree of planning and one of the cars was found outside the house where he was sleeping. He would start drinking after work and wake up the next morning with a set of car keys wondering what on earth he had done."

Mr White said Gayton is now addressing an alcohol problem which dates back to his childhood and has joined an Alcoholics Anonymous group in prison.