A homeless man who preyed on elderly women by robbing them in the street has been jailed for eight years.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Mohammed Suleman pounced on his victims in the Shipley area earlier this summer.

In the first attack in August, 73-year-old Maureen Dewhirst was standing at a bus stop when he grabbed the strap of her handbag.

After she fell to the ground, Suleman fled down a snicket. Mrs Dewhirst suffered swelling to the back of her head.

On a separate occasion, he targeted 69-year-old Constance Brady and wrenched a handbag from her shoulder as she was walking along Birklands Road.

Prosecutor Robert Blantern told the court she underwent surgery for a fractured leg and elbow after being dragged along the ground.

Before committing those robberies, Suleman carried out a burglary in the Shipley Fields area in August.

He broke into the house while the owners were on holiday by smashing a bay window.

He took some jewellery, cooked himself a meal, had a shower and fed the family cat before leaving with nearly £5,000 worth of property.

A month earlier, Suleman stole £14,995 in takings from a fast food wholesaler in Sheffield before going to London and spending all of it on "prostitutes and good living".

Suleman, who had lived in Beamsley Road, Shipley, pleaded guilty to two robberies, one of burglary and one of theft. He also asked for 13 other offences to be taken into consideration after committing a series of handbag snatches within a one month period.

Mitigating, Tony Cranfield told the court Suleman was living rough at the time and carried out the offences to keep himself going.

He added Suleman felt "terrible" about the robberies.

Sentencing him, Judge James Barry said it was a "horrid catalogue of offending".