A DISCARDED cigarette butt was enough to connect drug user Mark Brooks to an early morning break-in, a court heard.

Bury magistrates were told how forensic tests by police revealed DNA evidence that linked the 27-year-old to a burglary at the Church Institute Men's Social Club in Prestwich.

During the break-in, the front door and several internal doors had been smashed and a cigarette machine forced. More than £200 worth of cigarettes, spirits and food were stolen.

But the discarded butt proved to be vital evidence. Seven months later Brooks was arrested.

Police had gone to an address in Prestwich in connection with another matter and while there Brooks had approached them and volunteered the fact that he had on him a small quantity of cannabis.

He was arrested for that and checks later revealed he was wanted in connection with the social club burglary.

In court, he pleaded guilty to both possession of the drug and entering the club as a trespasser.

He was also sentenced on two other matters, remitted from magistrates in Manchester, which he had previously admitted.

Brooks, of no fixed abode, was jailed for eight weeks.