A burglar who targeted the homes of vulnerable people has been locked up for two years.

Jahniah Thompson, 20, struck three times in a month in Heaton, Wibsey and Horton Bank.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Thompson, of Yateholme Drive, Clayton Heights, had been given a suspended custody sentence in September for stealing sentimental possessions in another burglary in April.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said the three summer burglary offences were similar.

He told Thompson he had chosen to attack three large houses in the daytime.

“You did so with pre-planning and determination, almost a professionalism,” Judge Thomas said.

In the first burglary Thompson targeted the home of an elderly couple and stole jewellery valued at least £1,000 and of sentimental value.

A lone retired woman lived at the second property. She was on holiday but was still so traumatised she scrubbed the whole of the house to wash the burglar out of it. her blood pressure went sky high and she became mentally exhausted.

The third burglary took place while an Asian family was at Friday prayers.

Thompson was sentenced to two years’ youth custody.