The 76-year-old, was left injured after challenging Stuart McCrae on finding him in the kitchen of her house.

When she tried to stop the convicted thief leaving, she alleged he shoved her so hard that she landed on the door handle of a unit on the other side of the room.

However, McCrae, 52, was acquitted of assaulting the woman, following a three day trial at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, but was found guilty of two other charges of being within the property with the intent to commit theft and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

McCrae broke down in tears in the dock as he gave evidence in his defence, saying he had panicked when confronted by the “angry” pensioner and said that if he pushed her it was accidental as he attempted to flee the scene.

He said: “This has ruined my life, I can’t sleep at night.” The court heard the pensioner had been in the back garden of her house, which sits in a private lane, with her husband on May 9 this year and had gone inside to check on a cake she was baking when McCrae came through the kitchen door from the hall.

When she asked what he was doing there he said he was looking for bed and breakfast accommodation.

Procurator fiscal depute Fraser Gibson asked her how hard she had been pushed, and the pensioner told the court: “Hard enough for me to end up nine or 10ft across the room into a kitchen unit door handle.” She screamed for help and followed McCrae. On hearing her cries her 78-year-old husband came to her aid, as did a neighbour.

McCrae, who was living at Rosshead House in Alexandria at the time after losing a Clydebank tenancy due to being in prison, was seen making off up the drive of a neighbouring house.

Police discovered him a short time later on the platform of Cardross rail station and detained him. They later discovered a black jacket matching that description of one the intruder had been wearing folded up underneath a tree close to the train station.

A jury of 10 men and five women returned the not proven verdict on the assault charge following a three-day trial. However, they didn’t believe McCrae’s account that he was following directions he had been given by a friend for a B&B in the town, and unanimously found him guilty of the other charges.

Following the verdict it was revealed that McCrae had a lengthy record of convictions for dishonesty and was on early release from a prison sentence imposed in September last year for theft.

Sheriff Simon Pender said: “You have a horrendous record. You will return to prison in respect of the unexpired portion of that sentence; 311 days.” The sheriff then sentenced McCrae to a further 10 months in prison to start when the unexpired prison term has been completed.