Neil Gordon Watt (54) is a veteran of 11 previous burglaries but the Dunedin District Court yesterday heard his approach over the years had not increased in sophistication.
The defendant was walking in Great King St on September 9 when he came to a student flat.
"He had already had a few [drinks] in," counsel Noel Rayner said.
While the female residents of the house were upstairs, Watt wandered in through the unlocked front door, grabbed two boxes of RTDs from the living room and left.
Unbeknown to the defendant, a CCTV camera had caught his brazen break-in and he was arrested shortly afterwards.
Watt was shown the footage and accepted he was the man in the frame.
However, he claimed he had no recollection of the incident.
Watt, the court heard, was also jailed for his last burglary in 2015 when he stole similarly low-cost items.
"It might be that the value of the goods was minimal ... but it’s the entering into the private space of persons that’s a concern," Judge Jim Large said.
The victims said they felt "violated" by Watt’s crime.
"It’s a strange feeling that a stranger has entered our property without our knowledge," they wrote in a statement.
Mr Rayner said his client accepted he had an issue with alcohol and he was motivated to undertake treatment to address that.
Watt was originally on bail but had spent time behind bars because of his drinking, the court heard.
"It may be that alcohol’s the driver of this ... but that doesn’t give you an excuse," the judge said.
As well as the nine-month prison term, Watt was ordered to pay the women $40 to cover the stolen alcohol.
