A Shipley building boss has praised the Telegraph & Argus for “helping to catch” a burglar, but has criticised the length of the jail sentence.

Groundforce manager Darren Ball said he was “disgusted” at the ten-week jail term given to 23-year-old Mateusz Rudzinski, at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates Court yesterday, after he stole £480 from the premises of the business.

Rudzinski, of Underwood House, North Wing, Bolton Woods, Bradford, was found guilty of committing burglary on October 24, 2012 at Perseverance Works, on Leeds Road, Shipley.

Mr Ball said: “I think just ten weeks is disgusting - nowhere near as long as I feel he should have got – and he’ll only do half of that.

“He’s probably out already. He got £500 from us, but the thing is how many other crimes has he got away with?

“This won’t deter him from doing it again. But we’d like to thank the T&A for helping us catch this guy.

“If the paper hadn’t put the pictures out then we’d not have got him.”

District judge Susan Bouch was shown CCTV footage recorded at the time of the incident, during the trial yesterday. A West Yorkshire Police officer identified the man in the footage as Rudzinski.

Despite Rudzinski pleading not guilty to the charge of burglary, Mrs Bouch agreed with police officers that the man on the CCTV tape was Rudzinski.

Mrs Bouch said: “I have seen the CCTV footage myself and we have heard the police officer and about how he made the identification. He had seen you two times in the week prior to this.

“I’m satisfied that it is you on the CCTV footage.”

Mitigating, Ramjad Khan said the police officer had misidentified his client. He said there were differences in characteristics on the video footage.

Prosecutor Niall Carling said the characteristics, build and tone of voice described by the person in the shop at the time of the incident matched Rudzinski.

On October 26, 2012, the Telegraph & Argus reported the crime and a photograph taken from the CCTV footage and spoke to Groundforce owner, Will Patchett, who was upstairs in the property at the time of the incident with a badly broken foot.

Mrs Bouch dismissed the two other charges against Rudzinski which included failure to answer court or police bail as soon as practicable and theft from the shop.