Two teenage brothers, described by a judge as "experienced, determined and professional housebreakers,'' have been locked up for three and a half years.

Passing sentence at Bradford Crown Court, Judge Arthur Hutchinson QC said attempts to reform 19-year-old Gareth Barnes and his 17-year-old brother Mark had failed.

He added: "I cannot achieve any reforming or correcting of your behaviour.

"All I can achieve is containment, to give the good people of Great Horton a longer rest from your offending.''

Mark Barnes, of Watmough Street, Bradford, had pleaded guilty to four house burglaries and asked for 37 other offences, including 31 house burglaries, to be taken into consideration.

Gareth Barnes, of the same address, had pleaded guilty to two burglaries and asked for three other offences to be taken into consideration.

Both admitted a further offence of criminal damage.

Peter Moulson, prosecuting, told the court that following information received police went to the brothers' home last October to arrest them.

He said they tried to escape by kicking their way through a plasterboard wall and into the house next door.

The woman living there was ill in bed and described herself as "frightened to death'' when the boys emerged from her fitted wardrobe. They were arrested by officers as they tried to escape from the house.

Judge Hutchinson described that incident as "terrifying.''

He said Gareth Barnes had been committing burglaries since 1990 and within two months of his release from a young offenders institution last May had been "at it again.''

His brother's first house burglary was in 1994 and not a year had gone by since without him committing offences.

Any lesser sentence would leave the people in the Great Horton area feeling "betrayed by the judicial system'' and losing what confidence they might have left in it, said the judge.

The court heard that both boys had an unsettled family background and were committing offences to pay for their drug addiction.

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