A burglar who stole from an outhouse was involved in a confrontation with the victim.

Defendant Ioan McKenzie was traced after a DNA hit of his blood left at the scene.

On a separate occasion McKenzie went on a spending spree with a credit card alleged to have been stolen from an office at Mold Law Courts.

McKenzie, 41, of Coed Aben in Wrexham, admitted burglary at Wynnstay Road in Wrexham, where he stole a £40 electric drill from an outhouse.

He also admitted theft of a card belonging to a member of staff of CAFTAS based at Mold Crown Court which he then used in the town centre to do contactless purchases of less than £30 each.

The total defrauded was £133 which had been repaid by the bank.

McKenzie - who had previous convictions for 208 offences - claimed that he had found the card in the car park outside the court.

He was jailed for a total of 24 weeks at North East Wales Magistrates’ Court at Mold today and was ordered to pay compensation of £173.

The court heard that he was subject to a suspended prison sentence, a community order and post sentence supervision.

Probation officer Andrew Connah said that the problem was that the court orders were not preventing his re-offending.

He would not recommend any further community disposal, he said.

Prosecutor Rhian Jackson said that on December 11 at 12-50am the defendant burgled an outhouse at Wynnstay Road and stole an electric drill.

Owner Shaun Edwards was alerted by his partner who opened the back door to let the cat out and saw plastic bags outside.

He saw a figure run past the porch and the victim shouted “Oi”, went after him and bravely took hold of him by the front gate.

The defendant tried to pull away, both fell and the gate came off its hinges.

Both got back up and the victim held onto the defendant until he saw him reach into his pocket.

Not knowing what he would do, he let him go, and the defendant ran off saying “sorry mate.”

Blood was found on the garden gate which produced a DNA hit for the defendant.

On December 18 the defendant was at court at Mold and Victoria Lloyd, who worked for CAFCASS, The Children and Family Court advisory and support service, with an office in the Law Courts, had left her coat in the office.

She returned to the office to find the coat had been tampered with, the lining of the pocket was out, and her card had disappeared.

Checks with her on line banking account showed that afternoon the card had been used at two garages, at Tesco and at Aldi.

CCTV footage showed the defendant was responsible for the contactless transactions.

McKenzie told how he took heroin and crack cocaine every day.

He could not explain how his blood was on the gate and he claimed that he found the card in the court car park.

The defendant denied entering the office as a trespasser and stealing the card.

Gary Harvey, defending, said that his client had an unenviable criminal record and said most of them were shoplifting.

It was inquisitive crime to feed his drug habit.

He had just been able to get his own flat in Coed Aben and he wanted a drugs prescription to stop him offending.

Mr Harvey said: “He is at a crossroads in his life. He wants to settle down and wants to put this kind of living behind him.”

He had never accepted taking the card from a court office.

McKenzie had little recollection of the burglary but accepted that a struggle took place as he tried to get away and wished to apologise to the gentleman concerned.