Blood found on a bolted down safe has helped jail a man who stole cash during a break-in for three years.

Tony Jackson stole a large quantity of cash from the security cabinet after breaking into a business on the Trinity Trading Estate in Sittingbourne in December 2017.

The 57-year-old, of Charlton Street in Maidstone, was found guilty of the burglary following a trial at Basildon Crown Court.

The court heard that on the morning of December 22, 2017, the victim arrived at work to find that his business had been burgled overnight.

The entry point was a rear fire door and items of property belonging to the business had been moved around.

They went on to find that a safe, which was securely screwed down to the inside of a cupboard, had been prised open with a crow bar and its contents removed.

A small amount of blood was found on the safe, the shelf it had been fixed to and a filing cabinet also within the office area. This blood provided a forensic match for Jackson, who had never had any previous involvement with the business.

CCTV from the site also recorded a man prizing the safe out of the cupboard.

When questioned about the CCTV, and the clear likeness between himself and the man in the recordings, he claimed the person in the footage was just as likely to be the police officer questioning him.

"Jackson had only recently been released on prison licence from a six-year prison term for a number of commercial burglaries when he committed this burglary" - Ian Whitmill

Jackson was arrested in January 2018 and, despite a full DNA match being gained from the blood, denied ever being at the site.

He went on to claim that there had been errors in the way the DNA was analysed but a second re-testing of his DNA came back with the same results. He also brought into question the validity of the National DNA Database during the trial.

Following a three day trial at the court, jurors unanimously found Jackson guilty after just twenty five minutes of deliberation.

Police Constable Ian Whitmill, the investigating officer for this case, said: "This has been a long investigation, spanning seven months, and I am pleased that Tony Jackson has now been found guilty and sentenced to a significant time in prison for this offence.

"Jackson had only recently been released on prison licence from a six year prison term for a number of other commercial burglaries when he committed this burglary and this highlights the significant risk he presents to law abiding businesses."