Bungling burglar Martin Jones has totted up a staggering 23 years in jail sentences in the past 16 years.

Judges have sent the 40-year-old to prison for lengthy sentences including five, three, seven, and four-year stretches for a series of botched break-ins.

Now Jones has been jailed for five years after he admitted burglary and assault...committed within days of yet another early release.

Each time, thief, who was living at a hostel in Folkestone, returns to burgling - and he even had the nerve to walk out of an open prison on Sheppey to steal.

He had been at large for for more than a year before being caught in 2013 and returned to prison.

Now a judge has heard how he was released from a seven year term in December last year only to be caught 14 days later raiding a house in Castle Hill Avenue in Folkestone.

He was spotted by Julie Winstanley as he carried a bag of stolen items from her home and she challenged him.

Prosecutor Dominic Connelly told the court there was a tussle and she managed to get the bag.

Jones fled only to realise he had left his identity papers inside the bag, Mr Connelly said.She injured her hand in the struggle and needed treatment.Judge Simon James, at Canterbury Crown Court, told him: "After you were caught you could have run away but you returned for the bag and were lucky not to have faced charges of robbery.She was trying to stop you taking away items which didn't belong to you."To her credit, Mrs Winstanley was having none of it and cried for help and fortunately others intervened."The judge heard how among Jones' previous offences was a raid on an 86-year-old man when the career burglar stole war medals and rings.

So he returned and managed to wrestle the bag away after pushing Ms Winstanley away but was caught nearby after others had witnessed the struggle and intervened.

Later he was caught trying to escape through a cap flap and a neighbour grabbed his foot and Jones ran away after leaving behind one of his shoes.

Jones had been serving a seven year sentence when he broke into a home after walking out of an open prison HMP Standford Hill, in Eastchurch in July 2012.

The criminal then went to stay with friends and stayed on the run and returned to jail for 14 months.

In the meantime he broke into the home of mother Michelle Parker in London Road, Sittingbourne, by throwing a brick through a window to gain entry.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how he went through the house systematically as he made an untidy search and put property - including jewellery with sentimental value - into bin bags.

Police found Jones' fingerprints on a bin bag and he was eventually arrested.

Jones, of no fixed address, had been jailed for seven years in April 2010 and still had about 15 months left to serve when he fled from the category D prison. He was then jailed for four years after admitting escape and burglary.