A bungling burglar also caught drink-driving has lost his appeal against the jail term for his drunken crimes.

Shane McDonagh, 22, was one of several intruders who burgled a construction site on which a hotel was being transformed into residential accommodation.

A manager left the compound locked and secure on September 8 but returned the following morning to find French doors were damaged, a window smashed and expensive tools missing.

“There were assorted beer bottles at the site which had not been left by staff,” barrister Tim Evans told Carlisle Crown Court yesterday. “There were footprints and indeed blood stains on a smashed window. The police were called given the plethora of forensic evidence. Scenes of crime officers attended.”

As a result of their analysis, details were circulated and McDonagh was identified through a DNA match to blood samples.

Police caught up with him at a disturbance outside his London home on October 12.

As he left the scene at the request of police, a knife with a six-inch serrated blade fell from his jacket.

Hours after the break-in, McDonagh had also committed a drink-driving crime.

This emerged after officers’ attention was drawn to his 'rather odd and erratic' driving of a Ford van.

McDonagh, of Bethine Road, Hackney, admitted burglary, drink-driving and illegal possession of a blade in public – all crimes having been committed in the capital.

But after he failed to show for his court sentencing hearing, a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was detained in Scotland while heading to visit a grandmother in Ireland and brought to Carlisle magistrates’ court as it was the closest one south of the border.

McDonagh received 28 weeks’ imprisonment from District Judge John Temperley. His appeal against the severity of that punishment was heard at the city’s crown court.

Jeff Smith, defending, said McDonagh had no previous convictions and was a father-of-three with another child on the way.

He suggested the prison sentence could be suspended with community requirements imposed.

But, dismissing the appeal, Recorder Peter Atherton – sitting with two magistrates – noted McDonagh had been consistently non-compliant with court orders, adding: “We have little confidence that if a suspended sentence was to be passed here, and Mr McDonagh is at liberty, there would be any compliance with associated conditions.”