Vandal left fingerprints after breaking window (From Gazette)

Vandal left fingerprints after breaking window

8:00am Friday 22nd January 2010 in

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A VANDAL was caught after he left a beer bottle at a crime scene.

Billy Mitchell’s fingerprints were found on a bottle used to smash the window of a Vauxhall Astra in Lake Way, Jaywick.

Mitchell, 24, was cautioned by police on condition he sent car owner William Henderson £15 to replace the window and wrote him a letter apologising for the damage.

Colchester Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday Mitchell sent the letter but failed to give Mr Henderson the £15.

It resulted in him being brought to court and having to pay a fine and court costs.

The court heard Mitchell, of Dorking Crescent, Clacton, had been to a party, had a large amount of alcohol, argued with his girlfriend and smashed the window in anger as he walked past on April 26 last year.

Eugene Piggot, mitigating, said Mitchell had been able to pay the £15 but had forgotten. He said there had been a fire in his flat and it had completely slipped his mind.

Mitchell, who admitted criminal damage, was in court having failed to adhere to the conditions of the caution in three months.

Magistrates fined him £67 with £100 costs and imposed an order for him to pay the £15 for the replacement window.