A jobless chef who burgled a Nottingham school was caught out when he was covered in an invisible crime-busting liquid.
Dale Wilson had abandoned the burglary when he set off a sophisticated spray system called SmartWater which had been installed in a computer room at Holgate Comprehensive School, Hucknall.
A window panel was smashed as Wilson tried to get to the IT room, housing £14,000 worth of equipment. Although he fled the scene, his clothes were sprayed with SmartWater liquid, containing a unique chemical “fingerprint” that linked him back to the crime scene.
Police confiscated a bag of clothes from him when they spoke to him sometime after the burglary in relation to another matter, Nottingham Crown Court heard. Forensic analysis of the SmartWater marked clothes linked him to the burglary. When police went to arrest him he pushed an officer in the chest and tried to escape.
He pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, common assault and escaping from police custody. He received three months in prison for the assault and escape from custody, which will run consecutively to ten months for the burglary.
Jeremy Janes, prosecuting, said nothing was stolen from the school. “Thankfully the [SmartWater] alarm system did its job.”