A burglar who broke into a house while there was no one at home but did not steal anything has had his prison time reduced from five years to four.

Dean Anthony O?Brien has spent much of his adult life in jail for various offences, including robbery and at least seven previous house break-ins.

When he pleaded guilty to another house burglary in August 2005, O?Brien was given a five-year jail term.

But Court of Appeal judges agreed with lawyer Elizabeth Christopher that the sentence was too long in view of the 44-year-old?s immediate guilty plea and the fact he had not taken anything from the house. It was also unoccupied when he raided it during daylight hours. His fingerprints were left at the scene.

Ms Christopher said her client had not wasted court time or resources because of his early plea of guilt and apart from some damage to an air-conditioning unit, there had been no aggravating factors to the offence.

She felt a jail term of between two and three years was more appropriate.

Appearing for the Crown, Cindy Clark agreed that the five years seemed overly onerous and in her opinion a four-year jail term would have been fairer.

Agreeing to quash the five-year conviction and replace it with a four-year jail term, Appeal Court Judge Sir Charles Mantell said O?Brien had a unenviable criminal record that included 14 convictions, including seven for a house break-in.

Sir Charles said the maximum sentence for the crime at the time was seven years and the argument was whether the five years handed out to O?Brien had been longer than necessary in view of the circumstances.

He said he and fellow Appeal judges Sir Austin Ward and Sir Anthony Evans agreed it had been an overly long sentence.