A PROLIFIC burglar was captured after he left his gloves behind at the scene of a break-in and was traced by his DNA, a court heard.
Neil Lawson smashed a patio door to get into a couple's house in Beeston Road, Dunkirk, and ransacked all the rooms.
He stole a 42-inch television, hair straighteners and four white-metal bracelets on April 10 this year, Nottingham Crown Court was told.
Police found the gloves in a bedroom and DNA tests led them to Lawson, 40, of no fixed address, whose profile was on the national police database.
He was in custody in HMP Lincoln at the time officers cautioned him about the burglary.
He said "did a telly go missing?"
He confirmed he left his gloves at the scene and said he had been on drugs at the time.
At Nottingham Crown Court yesterday, he admitted the burglary and asked for 14 other offences to be taken into consideration, including nine more house burglaries.
Lawson gained entry through windows or sometimes targeted glass doors before taking items.
Judge Michael Stokes QC sentenced him to three years and four months for the burglary, of which he will serve half, and took into account the other offences, which were all admitted.
He said Lawson had smashed his way into someone's home with some sort of tool or object, ransacked it and stole valuable property.
"That was one of many burglaries you committed in the Spring of this year."
After passing sentence, he said: "I hope, on this occasion, some active work is done to wean you away from your drug addiction, because that is the reason, in large part, why you committed these offences."
Adrian Reynolds, mitigating, said there was a lack of sophistication in the Beeston Road burglary as Lawson left the gloves behind.
"It's significant when police went to see him in prison he replied to the caution, 'did a telly go missing?'
"He admitted the offence in interview and asked police to take into account these other offences.
"This man has had a drug problem for a long, long time. He has deep-seated problems."
