A HOMELESS man who caused more than £2,000 of damage by smashing windows at Bradford City Hall and later threatened to blow up the building will be sentenced next month.

Paul Dass said the Council had been “taking him for a fool” by not helping to organise him somewhere to live, Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.

Prosecutor Nadine Clough told the court that on December 22 last year, Dass used a golf club to smash eight windows at the Grade I listed building, causing £2,252 of damage.

He was said to have been angry with the authority for showing him “no respect” over his housing situation after he was released from prison last September.

He was arrested on January 5, but while on bail for that offence, he was again detained by police for possessing a knife at St Blaise Way, near Bradford Forster Square train station.

Police had approached Dass at the station as he was seen to have been carrying a metal bar, and after his arrest, the six-inch blade was found in his clothing.

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On February 7, Dass was arrested again, after being reported by an operator on the intercom at Trafalgar House police station, on Nelson Street, Bradford. He was said to have told the operator he had a knife and was going to stab his brother. as he felt his family had “betrayed” him.

Miss Clough told the court Dass had also made threats to burn down City Hall.

as he had again been refused Council accommodation.

“He said the only thing stopping him was that he had no money to buy petrol”, she added.

John Raj, mitigating for Dass, who appeared by video link from prison, said his client, a self-confessed alcoholic, had been “let down” by the authorities. “The overriding factor behind this man’s recent life is his sole ambition to find somewhere to live,” he said.

“Had housing been in place, it is possible none of this would have occurred.”

Dass, whose address was given in court as Cloudsdale Avenue, West Bowling, had previously pleaded guilty to criminal damage to property, threatening to damage property, and two charges of possessing a bladed article in a public place. He was committed for sentencing at Bradford Crown Court on April 8.