A man banned from a Dover pub for suspected drug taking returned to burgle it, swiping cash, jewels and booze.

Thief Nathan Clifton was asked by a judge why he had targeted the Three Cups pub in Crabble Hill and replied: “I don’t want to give a sob story but I had lost my way completely, because everything in my life had gone t**s up for me.

“To be honest, I lost my way and I need help.”

Clifton, who has a 45-offence criminal record, had slipped into the pub while the landlord and his family were asleep upstairs.

The 26 year-old took a necklace, £1310 cash and a bottle of Jack Daniels and two bottles of Bacardi- but the raid wasn’t discovered until the cleaner arrived next morning on July 24 this year.

Prosecutor Bridget Todd said that the landlord checked the pub’s CCTV and recognised the man coming down the stairs from the living quarters.

Judge Rupert Lowe said: “He knew the man because he had barred him from the pub because of alleged drug taking. This was clearly a targeted break-in.”

Clifton, of Cherry Tree, Dover, appeared via HMP Elmley’s CCTV link and told the judge he wanted to be dealt with without the advice of a lawyer.

As he had two previous convictions for domestic burglary, the thief fell foul of the “three strikes rule” meaning he faced a minimum three-year prison term.

Clifton told the judge he broke in at a time when he was taking cocaine, crack cocaine, alcohol and amphetamines.

He added: “I am sorry for being a nuisance and for wasting people’s time.”

Clifton admitted burglary and was jailed for three years.