A bungling Black Country thief led police straight to the door of his drugs den after stealing a chair from his neighbour and leaving tell-tale scratch marks along the floor.

Officers simply followed the trail to the front door of Adrian Tuck, who was living in a block of flats in Caldmore, Walsall.

Inside, they found a cache of crack cocaine bagged up and ready for sale as well as a cannabis spliff in the bathroom, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday. Judge Martin Walsh jailed him for two years and eight months.

The court heard how police called to investigate the theft of a chair from a neighbour’s flat followed scratch marks to the door of jobless 21-year-old Tuck, who was living at Barleyfield House in Bath Street at the time.

Prosecutor Howard Searle said: “While in the defendant’s flat they saw a cannabis spliff in the bathroom.”

A weighing machine with traces of cocaine was unearthed in a cupboard along with blades to cut drugs, a wrap of cocaine was hidden in a shoe and 31 more were discovered in a bag in the lounge, the court was told.

Mr Searle revealed that officers had first been called to the block of flats in March after the chair disappeared from outside the flat of neighbour Sandra Trigwell where she had left it while popping downstairs.

Richard Atkins, defending, said: “His own stupidity has put him in the dock.”

Tuck, now living at Hough Road, Pleck, admitted possession of crack cocaine with intent to supply, possession of cannabis, handling a stolen credit card machine and stealing the chair.