A MUM grappled on the floor with a drug-addled burglar after arriving home in the dark and spotting him in her kitchen.

And when her husband came in moments later with their nine-year-old son he also grabbed raider Ricky Kilroy, only letting go when the intruder said he had a knife.

But the 30-year-old “fifth strike” burglar, who was trying to raise cash to buy drugs, was tracked down by the police and has now been jailed for three years.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the family got back to their Old Town home at about 9pm on Saturday, October 6.

As Hannah Bogdanowicz e unlocked the front door in the Lethbridge Road end-terrace she saw the kitchen light was on and a man standing there.

“She ran towards him and he towards her: They met in the hallway where they grappled together,” Miss Marlow said.

“They ended up on the floor, she screaming at him ‘what are you doing?’ and he saying ‘sorry, someone told me to come here, sorry.’”

Her husband, Stuart Miles, had been getting their son out of the car and he came in and grabbed the raider as his wife ran next door to call the police.

“At one point he suggested he had a knife and gestured to get it," she told the court.

Though Mr Miles didn’t see a weapon he feared what might happen and let go of Kilroy, who ran from the scene.

In the back garden the couple found their shed had also been broken into and tools were laid out ready for taking.

Items belonging to the raider were found, along with a foot print, and police managed to track him down.

Kilroy, of Beaulieu Close, Toot-hill,admitted burglary. The court heard he had been convicted of breaking into houses on four previous occasions.

In October last year he was put on a community order for similar matters having served a 30-month sentence imposed in 2010.

Michael Forward, defending, said his client had written a letter to the court apologising for what he had done.

He said he was in a new relationship and was determined to go straight when he came out of prison.

As part of his community order he said he was staying in a “dry house” in Trowbridge, but was thrown out when he tested positive for drugs.

“He came to Swindon and for the greater part of that time he was living in the back of a car,” he said.

Jailing him Judge Euan Ambrose said: “In October 2011 for dwelling burglary with 26 offences taken into consideration, a lenient course was taken at Oxford Crown Court.

“You were given a community order and included in that was a drug rehabilitation requirement.

“That was no doubt the court taking a chance on you in the hope that by that order you would be able to conquer the addiction that led to your offending.

“Here you are, just over 12 months after that sentence with you committing the offence I have just described.”