A couple broke into a dead man's house claiming to be 'ghost hunters' - and that they were there because there were 'rumours it might be haunted', a court heard.

Jason McCash and his girlfriend Naomi Ruth Haworth, both 35, forced the back door of the property on January 30 and found items ‘strewn around the house’.

Prosecutor Helen Longworth told Preston Crown Court that they later admitted to ‘roaming around the house freely’ before being arrested at the scene in Accrington by police.

She said: “They claimed to be ghost hunting or pretending to be ghosts in order to frighten one another.”

Defence barrister Richard Dawson, representing McCash, said his client has a ‘particular interest in the paranormal’ and there were rumours that a body had been left undiscovered ‘for a very long time’, LancsLive reports.

He told the court: “The entire Lancashire area is a veritable hot-bed of paranormal activity, including every type from witches, headless spectres, to ghosts and Roman soldiers and everything in between.

The case was heard at Preston Crown Court

“The town of Accrington seems to have had more than its fair share of paranormal activity and on the night of January 30 Jason McCash and his girlfriend went to what they had understood to be a property where somebody certainly had been deceased, perhaps murdered, and the body had been left undiscovered for a very long time.

“The rumours going around Accrington was that this might be a haunted house.

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“He maintains in his account in interview that he has a particular interest in the paranormal and that both he and his partner attended the property, pursuant to those rumours over the course of weeks, and effected their own entry to explore.”

The court heard that the owner of the house had passed away in December 2018 and the property was ‘awaiting disposal’.

Mr Dawson said: “The house, as they found it, was effectively that of an extreme hoarder.

“[McCash] describes entry and walking around on top of rubbish standing about three feet from the ground.

“It was an unusual property in and of itself. They were there for a relatively short period before the police attend and they are discovered and arrested.”

McCash and Haworth, of Ormerod Street, Accrington, both pleaded guilty to criminal damage.

Judge Heather Lloyd told the pair: “Your explanations for being found in this house as trespassers is in my judgement utterly ludicrous and I don’t accept it for one minute.”

Haworth also pleaded guilty to a separate offence of theft relating to an incident at Greenbank Police Station after she was arrested.

The court heard that the mum-of-one, who was suffering from the effects of drug withdrawal, swiped a purse from a nurse as she was being treated.

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The victim only discovered the purse was missing when she went to McDonald’s a few hours later.

In a statement provided to the court, the nurse said the incident ‘made me feel violated and less trusting of anyone’.

Richard English, defending Haworth, said it was a ‘mean thing to do’ and she was ‘not thinking clearly at the time’.

He said: “She was addicted and withdrawing from heroin. She saw an opportunity and took it. She was still in custody when the property was recovered.”

The court heard how Haworth had been a heroin addict since the age of 19 but now ‘feels brand new’ after she stopped taking the class A drug.

Mr English said she now wants to work with people with substance issues.

McCash, who has a ‘large number of previous convictions’ including dishonesty, house burglary, theft and assault, was given a 12-month conditional discharge order.

Haworth was also given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £50 compensation to the nurse.

Sentencing Haworth, Judge Lloyd said: “This was a particularly mean offence and when you were supposed to be unwell and being treated by the nurse.

"I’m not surprised that she feels violated and less trusting. Heaven knows they are not working in pleasant circumstances in the first place.

“Many people would think this offence alone deserves immediate imprisonment.

"However I have to sentence you in accordance with the sentencing guidelines which places this in the lowest category of harm as it does, astonishingly, culpability.”