A BURGLAR was implicated to the crime through a finger print left on connectors from a television taken in the break-in, a court heard.

By the time forensic evidence emerged, perpetrator Michael Johnston was already in custody following a further house burglary he was suspected of committing.

Durham Crown Court, sitting at Newcastle, was told the original crime, the break-in at a house in Fencehouses, took place in June last year.

The victim returned to the property, in Sydney Street, ill from work to discover the house had been burgled.

Among items taken were a mobile phone, a computer game console, a laptop computer, a wallet, the television and a set of car keys for a Vauxhall Corsa, which was taken from outside the house.

Lewis Kerr, prosecuting, said the haul from the house,Β worth Β£7,500, and the stolen car wereΒ never recovered.

A cigarette butt left at the premises was later identified by a DNA match with a female accomplice, who has been dealt with previously.

Mr Kerr said the connectors to the stolen tv were analysed giving a match to Johnston.

But, by then, Johnston was in custody for another break-in, at a house in Newbottle, near Houghton-le-Spring, last December.

Forensic evidence also pinpointed him to that break-in, as police recovered a discarded screwdriver, thrown over a fence, which was used to gain entry to the burgled house.

Johnston, of Wordsworth Avenue, Easington Lane, admitted that burglary and received a 32-month prison sentence at Newcastle Crown Court, in March.

The 40-year-old defendant appeared via video link from Holme House Prison, Stockton, for a plea hearing relating to the Fencehouses break-in, at Durham Crown Court.

Having initially denied burglary and theft of the Vauxhall Corsa, he changed his pleas and admitted both offences after conference with his counsel, Helen Towers.

Judge Singh said if both the Fencehouses and Newbottle burglaries had been dealt with together, as they should have been, at the March hearing, the sentence would not have differed.

Twenty-month concurrent sentences were imposed for the Fencehouses offences, which means the earliest release date for the defendant, in June next year, should not be extended.

The judge told Johnston: β€œIt should not effect the material date when you are released.”