A SWANSEA man involved in a £23,000 burglary was caught after writing his name on a notepad at the scene.

Craig Cullen was tracked down after leaving a cheeky message saying: "Craig was here".

Swansea Crown Court heard that 25-year-old Cullen part of a five-man gang that targeted an industrial unit at Gorseinon Road, Penllergaer, last year.

They forced their way into Duraweld sometime between March 17 and 19 and took steel girders, gates and railings along with computers and tools.

The owners of the business calculated that items worth £23,000 had been stolen in the break-in, said Kevin Riordan, prosecuting.

Cullen was arrested after his DNA was found on a cigarette butt dropped at the scene. Tests also established he was the author of the notepad message.

Interviewed by detectives, he said he had gone to the unit with four friends in search of metal to cash in for scrap. The profit from the sale of the metal was then split between the five of them.

Cullen, of Townhill Road, Townhill, pleaded guilty to being involved in the burglary when he appeared before Recorder David Miller.

Stephen Rees, in mitigation, said his client was shocked to find the items stolen had been worth so much.

He claimed that Cullen, who was a lookout in the raid, was "plainly a stooge" and it was significant that he was "the only one against whom there was any evidence".

The fact that Cullen had left his signature and his DNA at the scene spoke volumes about what a probation officer had termed his "limited use of cognitive and behavioural skills", said Mr Rees.

He conceded Cullen had a long criminal record and had been given "chance after chance after chance" to avoid custodial sentences in the past.

Sentencing, the judge said it had been a serious burglary but the court was prepared to accept that Cullen's role in it had been relatively minor.

Other key factors were that almost a year had passed since the break-in — and probation officers had been impressed with the defendant's efforts to comply with a community order imposed last September for a different offence. "It may be that you are turning a corner at long last," the judge told him.

He imposed a nine-month prison sentence but suspended it for two years. Cullen was further ordered to attend a thinking skills programme run by the probation service, carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work and pay costs of £200.

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