Burglar left his blood and wine at houses he broke into

Grzeogorz Konopka targeted a number of properties in Warrington and Runcorn during a spree of burglaries between January 2016 and May 2019.

The 34-year-old was handed four-and-a-half years behind bars at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, March 9.

His first break-in came on New Year’s Day in 2016, when the owner of a house on Exmouth Crescent in Runcorn found blood on the glass of his back door.

Konopka had smashed and opened the kitchen window before taking items including a TV, a games console, jewellery, a laptop and cash – having also forced his way into a shed outside.

In March 2019, he forced the front door of a property on Hardy Street in Orford open and ransacked the house before stealing a TV.

Droplets of his blood were again found in the hallway, on the cupboards in the kitchen and on the front door.

The burglar later attempted to sell the stolen television at two pawn shops in the town.

A month later, he burgled a house on Long Lane and stole bank cards – which were later used at a number of shops in Warrington.

Konopka, of Slough, left a discharged cigarette at the top of the stairs and four cans of beer in the kitchen.

In May, he stole a bike from an address on Whitefield Road in Stockton Heath – with his DNA recovered from a bottle of wine he had discarded in the garden.

The defendant was arrested in December in Slough and later admitted four counts of burglary and two charges of fraud.

Detective sergeant Ian Bingley said: “Konopka was a greedy burglar, but not clever when it came to avoiding detection.

“He left traces of his blood at two of the houses he targeted as well as DNA on a cigarette and an alcohol bottle he discarded at another house.

“No one should be made to feel unsafe because someone has intruded into the one place they should feel secure.

“Thankfully Konopka is now behind bars and his burglary spree has come to an end.”