Hartlepool burglar snared by eating biscuit - careless crook left DNA on remains of snack

Michael Metcalfe, 33, of West View Road, Hartlepool, took a bite from a biscuit while burgling the home of an 85-year-old man, Teesside Crown Court heard.

But the hapless housebreaker left behind his DNA on the uneaten remnants of the snack, leading to his arrest.

Prosecutor Victoria Lamballe said Metcalfe's records from a seven-year sentence for wounding matched saliva found on the biscuit remains by Scenes of Crime Officers.

Ms Lamballe said Metcalfe had ransacked every part of the large semi-detached house in the Burn Valley area of Hartlepool on Saturday June 15 after smashing a bathroom window and an interior door while the owner was away for a few days.

Metcalfe even stripped the man's bed and stole photographic equipment worth £4,000 including a valuable Hasselblad camera.

Miss Lamballe said: "The entire premises had been subjected to an untidy search, and a half-eaten biscuit which had been taken from a packet was on the floor.

"Scenes of Crime officers found saliva on the discarded biscuit and identified it as his and he was arrested on July 1."

Stephen Constantine, defending, said Metcalfe was homeless after being kicked out by his parents because of his drug addiction, and could remember nothing of the raid after taking heroin and sleeping tablets.

Mr Constantine said Metcalfe may have been looking for somewhere to sleep, and he had now spent three months as a remand prisoner in Durham Jail locked in his cell for 23 hours a day because of the Covid clampdown.

He said Metcalfe was filled with remorse to discover that it was the home of a man in his eighties, and a pre-sentence report had recommended him for a drug rehabilitation course and rehabilitation activity requirements with a tagged curfew if he could be given a suspended jail sentence

Metcalfe’s mother had said that she was prepared to have him back living in the family home if he kept off drugs and had a curfew, the court heard.

Recorder Richard Woolfall said: "I am afraid that this offence was so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate."

Metcalfe was jailed for 12 months after he pleaded guilty to the burglary.

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