TWO bungling burglars who failed to escape after a Didcot break-in have been jailed.

Andrew Bayliss and Alex Bayne both appeared in Oxford Crown Court yesterday to be sentenced for a burglary on February 21 this year.

The pair were spotted, together with another man who remains at large, breaking into a house in Arndale Beck by neighbour Robert Hollister.

Jerome Silva, prosecuting, said the neighbour chased 25-year-old Bayliss down nearby streets and through a stream before turning back.

The barrister said the “very tired and wet and dirty” burglar was then picked up by police shortly afterwards. Bayne, of Calder Way, Didcot, ran off through back gardens but was also arrested. A laptop and a camera, taken during the break-in, were recovered and returned.

Bayne admitted burglary and criminal damage, for forcing the house’s back door, and Bayliss, who has now moved to Blackpool, was convicted of burglary.

Recorder Rhona Campbell sentenced a weeping Bayliss to three years in prison because this was his third burglary offence. She sentenced Baynes, who has one burglary on his record in 2005, to a year in prison.