A mother chased a burglar and ordered him to give back what he had stolen - despite being threatened with a replica handgun, a court heard.

Oxford Crown Court was told drug-addict Marc Daniel-Youngs emptied out his bag of stolen goods in the street after the woman refused to stop chasing him.

Daniel-Youngs, 28, of Station Road, Faringdon, was finally caught by police, five years after the burglary.

A DNA sample taken after a car crash this year matched blood left at the house in Shrivenham when it was burgled in May 2001.

Having admitted an aggravated burglary charge at an earlier hearing, Daniel-Youngs was given a two-year suspended sentence and told to pay £1,000 compensation to the victim.

Cathy Oliver, prosecuting, said: "The victim came home to her house. She heard someone coming down the stairs. It was a man carrying a black holdall. He had her son's stereo under his arm.

"He threw it down. She followed him shouting at him and demanding her property back."

Ms Oliver said Daniel-Youngs then dropped the woman's jewellery box and a tin of cat food.

She said: "She (the victim) picked up the tin of cat food and threatened him with it. He turned around and pointed what she said was a handgun at her.

"She kept following him, demanding back her property, until he stopped and emptied the holdall and ran off."

Ms Oliver added it was now known the weapon was a silver replica pistol.

She said four days after the burglary, the victim found a letter of apology in the garden with her stolen watch and some money.

Peter Coombe, defending, said Daniel-Youngs had changed his life since the burglary.

He said: "He felt immediately ashamed at what he had done. He has clearly carried the burden of the guilt with him for five years."

He added that Daniel-Youngs had been drug-free since 2001.

Asking the judge not to jail him because of his reformed character, Mr Coombe said: "Had he been caught at the time he would have deserved a substantial prison sentence."

Judge Julian Hall said: "You have changed yourself from a man in his early 20s who was addicted to drugs to a man useful to society. You certainly frightened the life out of her.

"She's a woman of spirit - she chased you."