BURGLARS leave behind forensic traces at just three per cent of break-ins in Oxfordshire, as crooks become more aware of police tactics. In the past year, while investigating the county’s 1,846 burglaries, police found 126 fingerprints and 59 DNA traces – the equivalent of three per cent.

This week, two burglars were jailed at Oxford Crown Court after police discovered DNA evidence at the scene of the crime.

But Det Sgt Louise Tompkins, head of Oxford burglary team, said forensic successes were rare.

She said: “People are becoming more aware of forensics where 10 years ago they wouldn’t have considered it so much.”

Shane Coates was jailed on Tuesday for six months after his fingerprints were found on the window ledge of a house in Chalgrove in August last year.

Coates, 21, of Lytton Road, Cowley, claimed he was too drunk to remember the burglary, but a jury found him guilty based on the forensic evidence.

Thomas Pancott, 31, of no fixed abode, was tracked down by police through traces of blood found at a broken window after he burgled a house in Little Milton, near Thame, in March. He was jailed on Tuesday for two years four months.

Government figures released this week showed a 15 per cent annual rise in burglaries in Oxford from 788 to 967.

Det Sgt Tompkins added: “Clearly, there has been a rise but this is still lower than in 2005/06 when there were more than 1,000 burglaries.

“There has been a lot of work and improvement carried out in between.”