BRENDAN Colin Coote was at a loss to explain to police how his fingerprints were found inside a nearly completed four-bedroom house at Lavington.
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A court has been told the house being built at the corner of Union Road and Diggers Road was due for completion in the week starting October 20 last year.
It had been fitted out with kitchen appliances along with bathroom fittings and a tradesman had made sure all the doors and windows were locked when he finished work on October 18.
But the next morning the site manager was not-ified the house had been broken into, there was damage and items had been stolen.
Police and crime scene officers from Albury attended and obtained prints on a kitchen bench and the outside of an en-suite window.
Two days later they were matched with Coote’s fingerprints and police went to his home on December 5.
An officer did a notebook interview with Coote, who denied entering the house and said he was unable to say why his prints had been found.
Police arranged for Coote to be fingerprinted on January 15.
But when he arrived, Coote became aggressive, argumentative, told police they already had his fingerprints and refused to provide them.
A court order was sought by police for Coote to provide a forensic sample with his fingerprints.
The order was served on him and he went to the station on February 24 where he had his fingerprints taken.
Coote, 27, of Jason Court, Lavington, has pleaded guilty in Albury Local Court to a charge of break, enter and steal.
Magistrate Tony Murray was told compensation of $8244.11 was being sought.
But Mr Murray has adjourned Coote’s sentencing until July 11 for more information to be provided about the compensation.
The court was told in police facts that an outside pump was reported damaged when the site manager attended on October 19.
A window to the en-suite was open, with the lock from the window found on the bathroom floor.
Kitchen appliances had been stolen and taps and shower heads in the main bathroom were gone.
There was flooding in the en-suite, main bedroom and garage.