In a matter of 48 hours a notorious burglar, who was bailed because of a Police blunder, was nabbed, hauled before a judge and will begin serving a three-year prison sentence for breaching the conditions of his probation.

And Assistant Justice Charles-Etta Simmons said she was not impressed with the excuses Toronto McDonald Darrell tried to give in his defence as to why he did not appear in Supreme Court on Friday morning.

Instead Mrs. Justice Simmons - who said that Darrell had been given many chances to do right - "revoked" his probation and activated a three year suspended sentence. Mrs. Justice Simmons said his no show in court after his bail release by Police on Thursday, was the last straw.

Darrell 36, of Cedar Hill, Warwick, was arrested Thursday afternoon, but was released by Police two hours later, on the condition he showed up in Supreme Court on Friday morning to answer for lapsing the terms of his probation.

And according to a Police spokesman a manhunt for Darrell was a success last weekend, with him being produced before Mrs. Justice Simmons at noon on New Year's Eve. Since his December 8, release from Westgate Correctional Facility, Darrell failed to hold regular employment, failed to meet regularly with his probation officer and failed to give urine samples.