JUST two minutes after stealing an expensive BMW from a Wirral driveway the thief lost control on a roundabout and crashed it into a lamp-post.

The £12,000 car was so badly damaged it was an insurance write-off and the collision also caused £14,000 worth of damage to the street lamp, a court heard.

The driver, Kory Hodgskin - who was on licence from a prison sentence for burglary - and his companion fled from the scene at the junction of Mount Road and Thornton Road, Higher Bebington.

But forensic experts found his DNA on the driver’s airbag which had inflated on impact and he was tracked down and arrested.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that 26-year-old Hodgskin, from Thingwall, lied when quizzed and claimed that he had seen the accident and had gone over to help the car occupants which was how his DNA got on the airbag.

But he later went on to plead guilty to burglary involving stealing the car keys, aggravated vehicle taking and driving without insurance and was today jailed for 42 months as it was his third house burglary.

Sentencing him Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, said that he had gone to the house in Bebington, equipped to steal a car. “You had with you a hook and cane device or similar.”

Louise McCloskey, prosecuting, said the householder heard noises outside his home at 12.50am, on October 26, and looking out of his bedroom window saw Hodgskin in the driver’s seat of his car and another man standing nearby.

On seeing him the other man got in and the car was driven off and the police were alerted. At 12.52am the vehicle was found after colliding with a lamp-post but the occupants had fled.

The victim’s partner is now afraid to be alone in the house when he is on night shifts, said Miss McCloskey.

Gerald Pachter, defending, said Hodgskin, who has committed 63 previous offences, wants to turn his life around and has been on various courses while in custody.

Pressure had been put on him because of a cannabis debt but the burglary had not involved actually going into the house.

His “long-suffering partner”, the mother of his two children, who was in the public gallery, has health issues but is standing by him, said Mr Pachter.

Judge Goldstone told bearded Hodgskin, who had his long hair tied in a topknot, that he owed it to his partner and his mum, who has dementia, to lead a decent law-abiding life when freed.

He banned him from driving for three years and nine months.