Crooks are often said to be caught red-handed, but it was a burglar's sweaty palms which landed him in jail.
Terry Gould is diabetic and one symptom of the condition is that he often sweats profusely, especially when under stress.
When he tried to break into a pensioner's home, in Isleworth, last May, he didn't figure on his perspiration leaking through his gloves and leaving tell-tale DNA on the window sill.
The 34-year-old, of Romford, Essex, was tracked down two weeks after the crime. He admitted burglary and, at Kingston Crown Court on March 5, was jailed for 21 months.
Police had been called to Riverside Walk on May 16 last year after the 75-year-old victim was woken in the early hours by two men trying to climb through his window.
They ran off when he challenged them and forensic officers later found Gould's glove marks on the man's window sill.
DC Sarah Johnson, of Hounslow CID, said: "Gould is a diabetic and a symptom of this can cause profuse sweating especially during a time of stress.
"Forensic analysis identified that his sweat had leaked through the gloves onto the window sill. This then gave us his DNA profile leading to his arrest.
"Fortunately the elderly victim was not injured during the attempted burglary but he was left very shaken."
