A BOLTON businessman convicted of burglary on the strength of a single thumbprint was rightly found guilty, Appeal Court judges have been told.

Peter Wright, QC, for the Crown, urged them to rule that Alan McNamara's conviction over the £33,000 raid on a Rochdale family's home was "safe" and should be upheld.

Mr McNamara, aged 42, of Highland Road, Bromley Cross, was jailed for two-and-a-half years in July 2001 after being convicted at Manchester Crown Court.

Mr Wright said criticisms being made of the fingerprint evidence and procedures followed by the scene of crime police team had already been or could have been put before the jury at the trial.

He told the Appeal Court it was undisputed that the crucial thumbprint had been found in the burgled home.

Doubts over its "provenance" - whether it was "lifted" from a jewellery box or a vase or some other household item - cast no doubt on the jury's verdict.

The householder had said that two vases pointed to by Mr McNamara's lawyers as possible locations of the thumbprint had been brought by her from another part of the country nine years before the burglary.

Mr Wright said the chances of innocent handling of the vases by Mr McNamara in the course of his household goods trade were "so remote" they could effectively be excluded.

Mr McNamara's case has already been featured on the BBC's Panorama programme and, in a case which puts the spotlight on the reliability of fingerprint evidence, his lawyers argue he was the victim of a grave miscarriage of justice.

He has already been released from prison after serving 30 months, but his legal team - led by top barrister Michael Mansfield, QC - is fighting to remove the stain on his reputation.

Mr Mansfield argued he could easily have innocently handled a domestic item later found in the house during the course of his household goods business, which made a £100,000 profit in the year before his conviction.

He said the Crown's failure to prove the integrity and continuity of the crucial thumbprint "lift" meant that Mr McNamara's conviction had to be declared unsafe.

Mr McNamara denied ever having been to the house, and his only connection to the property was the disputed thumbprint.

After one-and-a-half days of evidence, Mr McNamara does not know whether his appeal has been successful. Lord Justice Latham, Mr Justice Roderick Evans and Mr Justice Pitchers reserved their decision until a later, unspecified date.