A MAN who broke into a pensioner's home – claiming he was looking for a lover he suspected of cheating on him – has been convicted of burglary.

Matthew Smith, 28, of Shelford Avenue, Gorton, forced his way into the property in Hulme in April.

He told Manchester crown court he had downed half a bottle of whisky and was expecting to catch his partner of eight years and a mystery man in bed together.

But, he claimed, after prising open the kitchen window and going from room to room he discovered the place was empty and seemed like 'an old lady's house'.

In fact, the house belonged to a 72-year-old woman who was away at the time.

Bizarre

Smith was convicted of burglary after a jury rejected his bizarre story.

He had told court that at the time he and his partner had been having relationship problems - intensified by his own infidelity - and so he had seen a Relate counsellor.

In the weeks before the break-in, Smith said he had been checking his girlfriend's 'every move' – his jealousy inflamed, the court heard, by texts she received from male friends with kisses on the end.

Smith claimed that his suspicions were stoked further when a friend told him he had seen his girlfriend going into a man's home.

On the fateful night Smith said he attempted to call his girlfriend 11 times but got no answer. He told court that while his 'mind was working overtime' he made a 'stupid decision' to break into the house.

"I don't know which I would have preferred, to find her there or not find her there," he said.

Smith had used screwdrivers to prise the window open and wore a latex glove which he dropped at the scene. This linked him to the crime.

Lies

Prosecuting, Jane Greenhalgh said Smith's version of events was 'absolute lies' and a 'fanciful story intended to hoodwink' the jury.

After a two-day trial Smith, who denied burglary, was found guilty.

He will be sentenced next month.