A BUNGLING burglar went to the same cashpoint more than 50 times - to try and guess the PIN numbers of bank cards he had stolen.

Taxi driver Trevor Agnew, 44, thought he might strike lucky if he kept on putting in random sets of four numbers into the ATM machine.

But with the odds of correctly guessing a card's PIN number ranked at one in 10,000, Agnew never managed to make a single withdrawal.

His repeated failed attempts at the same cashpoint, at a post office on Stockport Road, Timperley, only served to arouse suspicion and he was filmed by police on a CCTV camera.

Agnew's picture, published in the Manchester Evening News and broadcast on Channel M, was recognised by one of our readers - and now he is starting a prison term of three years and four months.

Police believe Agnew may have used his job as a taxi driver to pick out homes around Cheshire and Lancashire which he would then return to at night and break into.

Between December 2007 and March 2008, he carried out two raids in Wilmslow, two in Knutsford, two in Pickmere, one in Chester and another in Skelmersdale.

Agnew used the cards to try and withdraw hundreds of pounds from the same cashpoint in Timperley, less than three miles from his home in Hall Lane, Wythenshawe.

At Chester Crown Court he pleaded guilty to eight counts of burglary and was jailed for three years four months.

Pc Gary Turner, of Cheshire Police eastern area burglary unit said: "Agnew's standard method was to get into houses while the occupants were in bed and take handbags or wallets which might contain credit cards.

"He then used the cards to attempt to take cash from cashpoint machines.

"We set up a covert operation and he was caught on a CCTV camera. A picture from the CCTV was published in the Manchester Evening News and he was identified from that."

Pc Turner added: "It is a good example of how thorough detective work and good co-operation from a newspaper can beat crime.

"This man was a persistent burglar who was causing people a lot of distress. The sentence reflects that."