DNA match snares 270-mile shop raider

A TRAIL of blood led police from a post office raid in Devon to a burglar hiding under his bed in Oldham 270 miles away.

DNA from the scene of Preston Post Office, Paignton, helped police track down Robert McIntyre (28), of Travis Court, Royton, Exeter Crown Court heard.

Jailing him for 14 months, Judge Stephen Wildblood QC told McIntyre: “The post office raid was committed while you were on parole and it was planned. If you had not pleaded guilty, the sentence would have been one of 21 months.”

The court was told that McIntyre targeted premises in Torbay, which stocked goods which were easily resaleable and got away with £5,000 of cigarettes and perfumes.

He also stole and interfered with a number of cars causing £5,000 in damage.

But the careless raider left behind blood traces at the scene of one of the burglaries and prosecutor Chris Bennett said the DNA match led police to McIntyre’s home in Oldham where he was found hiding under a bed at 3am.

A witness had spotted a car outside the post office in the early hours of the morning and the boot was being loaded with small items.

These turned out to be more than £4,000 of cigarettes which were taken from a vending machine, which had been wheeled out of the premises.

There was another burglary at Boots in Paignton, where perfumes were stolen. Mr Bennett said that post office owner Andrew Simpson was left shocked by the raid and felt “vulnerable and targeted”.

After he was arrested, McIntyre told police of a number of other offences he had committed including burglaries, taking cars, vehicle interference and driving while disqualified.

Mary McCarthy, mitigating, said McIntyre had a drink problem since he was a teenager but was now motivated to change.

He realised the drink was killing him, so he now wanted help to address the problem to try to get back to being a family man.

He had admitted the offences straight away and saved them time and money in investigations.

McIntyre pleaded guilty to burglary, taking a car, vehicle interference, driving while disqualified and having no insurance. He asked for nine further offences to be considered.

He was also banned from driving for 18 months.