TWO burglars who smashed their way into a luxury car showroom to steal £60,000 replica Ferraris ran out of petrol after speeding off in them, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Michael Jefferson and his accomplice were in full view of CCTV cameras at Performance-Porsche as they moved high value sports cars out of the way to take the red replica 250 GTOs.

It took them four hours to steal the hand-built replicas of the world's most expensive Ferrari.

Jefferson, 29, a Bradford man with strong links to Ravenscliffe, Holme Wood and Wibsey, was labelled a prolific burglar when he was jailed for four years and eight months.

He and another man, not before the court, targeted the upmarket car dealership in Brighouse in October last year, prosecutor Giles Grant said.

They smashed their way into a Portakabin, forced an alarm off the wall and broke into other cars before moving them out of the way.

The damage caused had affected three businesses and the hot-wired cars cost £1,000 to repair.

Mr Grant said the cars did not have much petrol in them. They were driven around the area until they ran out of fuel.

"When they were dumped, after running out of petrol, CCTV in the area showed two men walking round the vehicles taking photographs," Mr Grant said.

Jefferson, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to burgling the showroom and to three other break-ins at homes in Lightcliffe and Hipperholme. They were night-time burglaries when the occupiers were asleep. In one break-in, the intruders stole the keys to two vehicles and drove off in them.

Jefferson, who was handcuffed to a security officer in the dock, was on prison licence at the time. He served lengthy jail sentences in 2007 and 2009 for dozens of burglaries.

His barrister Rebecca Young said he wanted to apologise personally to his victims. He got in with the wrong crowd but was now highly motivated to change.

Judge Peter Benson told him: "You have a truly horrendous record for committing burglaries which stretches back a number of years."

The attack on the car dealership was pre-planned and determined. The burglars had worn hoods and moved other cars to get at the high value Ferraris.

After the case, Richard Illand, co-owner of Performance-Porsche, said security at the showroom had been tightened still further since the break-in.

"It was secure before, but it's belt and braces now," he told the Telegraph & Argus.

"This was the first time we've been broken into and I hope it will be the last. The burglars were on CCTVfor the whole of the four hours they were at the premises. They were always going to be caught," he said.

Mr Illand welcomed Jefferson's prison sentence, saying: "I expect he did it for the short-term thrill of sitting in such a wonderful car."