A PERSISTENT criminal has been jailed for smashing his way into Bradford College with a lump of concrete to steal £4,000 worth of computers.

Shahbaz Hussain had 112 offences on his record, including 33 matters of dishonesty, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Hussain, 33, of Sunbridge Road, Bradford, was before the court on a video link to Leeds Prison where he is serving an 18-month jail term for dangerous driving.

He denied burgling the woodworking classroom at the college overnight on December 3, 2019, but was convicted in his absence at Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court.

He was still not accepting his guilt on November 4 this year when he was locked up for 18 months for dangerous driving.

But today he pleaded guilty to stealing four Apple iMac computers worth a total of £4,000 from the college.

Prosecutor Ryan Donoghue said that security staff saw that the classroom window had been broken and found the piece of concrete used to smash it.

Hussain was arrested when his blood was found on a door inside the building and on a discarded computer recovered from the car park.

He denied any knowledge of the break-in claiming that he had previously used the computers at the college and the blood was when he got into a fight there.

But the court heard that members of the public do not have access to the computers and there was no record of any fight on the premises.

His barrister, Jayne Beckett, said Hussain had moved to Bradford from the Midlands to be with a partner and had few connections in the area. He was drinking and ran up a debt to a loan shark.

The burglary was almost three years ago and he had been in and out of prison since.

He had a baby he had not yet seen and was now determined to put an end to his offending.

Judge Ahmed Nadim said Hussain had a very substantial record of previous convictions. He was leading an itinerant lifestyle at the time, drinking alcohol and running up a debt to a loan shark.

He had attacked a vulnerable educational establishment causing disruption to the students at the college.

Hussain was jailed for eight months to run consecutively to the 18 months he is already serving, making a sentence totalling two years and two months.