A judge warned professional burglars to expect lengthy sentences as he jailed a Bradford man for six years yesterday.

Sentencing Ross Sutcliffe and two other men caught after high-powered vehicles were stolen from outside houses, Judge Neil Clark said: “This was serious professional crime."

He said Sutcliffe, 25, of Stirling Crescent, Holme Wood, Bradford, was involved in three burglaries where vehicles were targeted and he was also involved in the theft of valuable tools from vans in the Wakefield and Leeds areas.

Judge Clark said Sutcliffe had used some of the stolen tools to help commit the other offences.

“You knew what you were doing, taking equipment with you to do it, the premises were occupied at the time. This is serious because people should feel safe and feel that their property will be safe in their own homes.”

Sutcliffe admitted three burglaries, an attempted burglary and eight offences of theft.

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Thomas Trotter, 25, whose address was given as prison, was jailed for four years two months and Abraham John Fox, 22, of Royd Moor Road, Holme Wood, Bradford, was jailed for four years after they admitted burglary and attempted burglary.

Carmel Pearson, prosecuting, said the first burglary by Sutcliffe was at a house in Beckside, Flockton, near Wakefield, where the property was entered early in December after the owner had gone to bed and the keys to a Mercedes car were taken.

The garage door was then jemmied open and the Mercedes was stolen. That night in the same street, the van belonging to a carpet layer was entered and a phone and Stanley knife stolen, while in another street in Flockton a Transit van was broken into.

Between December 3 and 6, four vans belonging to contractors or workmen were entered and more than £4,600 worth of tools were stolen. A partial number plate was captured on CCTV of a vehicle involved and that was traced to a hire car which had been rented by Sutcliffe.

Miss Pearson said police believed a special device had been used to get into the vehicles without causing damage to them.

It was in the early hours of December 22 that another Mercedes was taken from outside a house in Woolgreaves Drive, Wakefield.

The householder discovered the company car was missing early the following morning. By then, police had been made aware of suspicious activity by a neighbour who had seen three or four men hanging around the Pledwick Estate.

Someone was seen trying a door handle in Pledwick Crescent and when officers arrived they discovered the barrel of the front door had been removed. Trotter was found hiding in a garden nearby.

Miss Pearson said a balaclava was found which had Fox’s DNA on it while Sutcliffe was linked by DNA on a torch left at the scene and he accepted stealing the Mercedes earlier.

Police said parts from one Mercedes which had been stripped and not recovered were later found in Poland.

Matthew Harding, for Sutcliffe, said he was released from his last sentence in January last year and started working with bouncy castles for children. But when the weather deteriorated, the orders dried up and he reverted to his former offending.

He denied using any special “blipper” to get into the vehicles.

Simon Hustler, for Fox, said it had been a difficult year for him. He had suffered severe injuries in a road traffic accident in April last year and had just been told he would not recover the full function in one arm.

After the case, Detective Inspector Mark Walker said: “Parts from the £25,000 Mercedes ML stolen from Flockton turned up in Poland two months after the initial burglary, proving that these criminals are connected to international distribution lines.”