Boozy burglar breaks into pub and drinks direct from taps before being caught when he falls asleep behind the bar

A boozing burglar who broke into a pub for his own late-night lock-in was caught the next morning - after falling asleep behind the bar.

Adam Joseph Bell, ransacked Em's Bar in Tamworth, Staffs, before leaning over the bar to drink directly from beer bumps.

Security footage showed Bell, 36, breaking into the bar at 3am and staggering around for over three hours before nodding off at the bar.

The intoxicated intruder was caught red-handed when bar staff turned up the next morning and found Bell snoring next to the pumps following his break-in last Thursday.

He was jailed for six months after a court heard he emptied the pool table and fruit machine, pocketing £2,000.

Bell, from Kirtley, Staffs, admitted burglary at Burton Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

CCTV footage shows Bell smashing his way into the pub at 4.40am last Thursday.

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The film shows Bell make numerous attempts to force open a pool table and fruit machine before he manages to scoop up around £2,000 in coins.

He then celebrates his 'win' by helping himself to a few drinks behind the bar.

But rather than use a glass, Bell puts his head under the draught beer tap before he can been seen staggering around the pub looking for more items to steal.

But his late-night raid proved too much and he eventually passed out behind the bar with the cash stuffed in his pockets.

On Thursday, bar manager Wesley Thomas, 35, said: 'It was pitch black, but we could see the shadow of a shape on the floor.

'You could see it was a body and we didn't know if he was alive or dead - he was just lying there.

'I gave him a shove and he woke up.

'That's when we realised who it was and called the police.'

Fellow owner Nicci Taylor, 29, added: 'It makes me feel sick to my stomach that someone could do this.

'I got a phone call and came down just after the police had taken him away.

'I had been in the bar the night before - we had a meeting the next day so I had made the place look nice.

'We hadn't counted the money up from the games machines, but we think it was around £2,000.

'He broke the locks and has smashed the machines to bits - and we've had to deep clean the place.'

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Police raced to the scene and arrested Bell, who was charged with burglary and possession of three wraps of crack cocaine.

He later pleaded guilty to all charges.

Just a week earlier he had been handed a three-month suspended sentence for theft - those offences were also committed while he was on conditional discharge for another offence.

In 2009 he was sentenced to three years and four months for heroin possession with intent to supply.