A CAREER criminal was caught by police as he attempted to leave a swag bag of stolen goods with a friend's next-door neighbour.

Prolific offender Wayne Richmond — who has 41 previous convictions — stole a games consoles, a watch, an iPad and a laptop from a house in Sofa Street, Heaton, before riding off on a bike that he also took from the property.

He took the stolen goods to a friend's house, but he was out, so he instead knocked on the door of the friend's neighbours and was in the process of trying to leave his rucksack — containing £1,300 of goods — with the baffled couple who live there when police arrived on the scene.

He at first denied knowing anything about the items, but police found CCTV showing him riding the bike with the rucksack.

Richmond, convicted 24 times for burglary or handling stolen goods, has now been jailed for three years and five months at at Bolton Crown Court.

Police say Richmond, aged 44, of Johnson Fold Avenue, is such a regular criminal that crime levels in Bolton will noticeably drop now he is behind bars.

He was first sentenced for burglary when he was just 14 years old, in September 1984, when he was also sentenced for theft and criminal damage.

Taking breaches of court orders into account, Richmond, whose lengthy criminal record relates to 72 offences, has acquired more convictions every year since then, barring when he has been in custody.

During 2014 alone, Richmond has been convicted of possession of heroin and cannabis, interfering with two vehicles, a theft from a motor vehicle and handling of stolen goods.

He was given a six-month suspended prison sentence on July 31, when he tried to sell on guitars after an £8,000 haul had been stolen from the home of a merchant seaman while he was living abroad.

Richmond claimed he had found them under a bush in Queen's Park.

Police said they had been frustrated trying to catch Richmond, arresting him multiple times in the past year on suspicion of burgling homes in Lostock and Heaton.

Det Insp Charlotte Cadden, of the Bolton North neighbourhood policing team, said the hard work of detectives meant that the evidence against Richmond was overwhelming, leading to an early guilty plea.

She said: "So after a lot of hard work and some frustrating results along the way, officers were finally able to get a decent conviction for this man, who is one of Bolton's most prolific career criminals.

"There will be a lot fewer victims of crime now that this man is safely behind bars."