Burglar's taste for champagne lands him behind bars

French police have caught a burglar drunk on champagne and sprawled in the front of the television in the house he had just robbed near Paris.

He offered no resistance when police came in after being called by the owners of the house in the historic old town of Provins. When they returned from an evening out, they noticed that the shutters, which they had left open, were closed, and decided not to go inside.

“He was just sitting there in front of the television with a bottle of champagne, almost empty,” a police source said. “It was one in the morning and he was very relaxed, completely intoxicated and had apparently forgotten where he was."

He was arrested in possession of cash, a passport and a pair of sunglasses which he had stolen from the house.

He had also taken a bicycle out in readiness to make a getaway, although he appeared too drunk to ride it, police said.

The 42-year-old man, who had previously been arrested for shoplifting, has appeared in court in a Paris suburb.