A food thief, caught after leaving his DNA on a lager can, was jailed for nine months.
Brian Hall drank from the can and left it sitting on the kitchen table of a friend’s home.
The 37-year-old, of Buccleuch Street, Hawick, had broken into the house at Sydenham Court, Kelso, on February 26 last year, stealing food worth £15.
The householder found the open can and realised a bedroom window was open. He then discovered a pork joint, gammon steak, hamburgers and cheese slices missing from the fridge.
Procurator fiscal Graham Fraser said: “He initially denied being there to police, but the DNA linked him in closely and he accepts his guilt.”
Mat Patrick, defending, said his client had a long -standing problem with alcohol, adding: “He remembers very little about the incident due to his addiction, but given the evidence he accepts it is fairly conclusive.”
Sentencing Hall at Jedburgh Sheriff Court, pictured, on Thursday, Sheriff Derrick McIntyre told him: “You broke into someone’s house. The fact only £15 worth of items were stolen is neither here nor there.”