Bleeding Wigan burglar who left DNA trail at four crime scenes is jailed

Burglar Craig Makin’s prison sentence was also imposed after a series of break-ins at which he cut himself and left plenty of blood samples with which to identify him.

But he threatened injury to others when staff approached him at M&S Food in Leigh to retrieve the champagne bottle which he had stuffed down his trousers.

A Bolton Crown Court judge was told that the 40-year-old, of no fixed address, then produced a hammer, raised it and threatened the manager with it. Makin pleaded guilty to the armed robbery, along with no fewer than five burglaries – four of which were detected because he bled at the crime scenes and left his DNA.

At the fifth break-in, Makin was identified from CCTV footage.

He was jailed for a total of 1,424 days which is just under three years and 11 months behind bars.

The first three raids all happened in Hindley between March 18 and 20 last year.

At Charlie’s Coffee Factory he took packs of bacon, coffee beans and chocolate powder.

At My Dentist dental surgery he escaped with £350 from the safe.

And at the AK Hair Lounge he stole a tin and its contents.

During that spree he left blood smeared on a door at the salon, on bottles at the dental surgery and on a fridge at the coffee bar. Meanwhile, he carried out another burglary at the Iceland store in Atherton on July 13, stealing bottles of alcohol and, amazingly, managed to leave blood traces behind again, this time on an alcohol cabinet.

On each occasion the traces led to a full DNA profile of Makin.

He didn’t leave blood smears in a home in Burlington Street, Hindley, which he broke into on May 5, but as he got away with a wallet, cards and cash, he was caught on a neighbouring house’s CCTV camera and was identified by police who then made an arrest.

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