Three men who went on a burglary expedition with a friend who was fatally stabbed by a householder, would be punished by the memory for the rest of their lives, a Court heard.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that Shazad Rehman, 32, died after he was stabbed in the heart with a weapon similar to a Samurai sword as the gang tried to break into the house to steal cannabis.

Prosecutor Clare Stevens told the court the four men drove to the house in Beckside Road, Lidget Green, last October, where they knew cannabis was being grown.

After unsuccessfully trying to climb in through an upstairs window, they began kicking the front door to try to get in, and a door panel broke away.

Miss Stevens said the 62-year-old tenant of the house, Barry Day, brandished a baseball bat at the men, but they continued to kick and hit his front door. Mr Day returned with a knife and thrust it through the hole in the door.

Mr Rehman was closest to the door and sustained a stab to the chest.

The three accused – Gareth Dobson, Daniel Hall and Waqas Khan – gave up trying to break in and took Mr Rehman to Bradford Royal Infirmary where he died five days later.

Miss Stevens said Mr Day had been arrested. The case was reviewed and he would not face proceedings in relation to Mr Rehman’s death, but would be prosecuted for cultivating cannabis.

Khan’s barrister, Yunus Valli, said it was a tragic case and his best friend had died. Mr Valli said: “Being involved in this criminal offence has led to the death of a very good and close friend. That, in itself, is a massive punishment for Mr Khan for all his life.”

Jayne Beckett, for Hall, said events began as an unsophisticated “jape”. She added: “Thereafter, what happened was tragic beyond tragic.” Kam Dhesi, for Dobson, said his client immediately applied pressure to the wound. He regretted his involvement in the incident “for obvious reasons”.

All three defendants pleaded guilty to attempted burglary. Dobson, 23, of Ingleborough Close, Holme Wood, Bradford, was jailed for 18 months; Hall, also 23, of Peel House, Bingley, was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment; and Khan, 26, of Edderthorpe Street, Barkerend, Bradford, was given a 12-month jail sentence.

The judge, Recorder Paul Isaacs, told them: “Mr Day, cultivator of cannabis or not, is deserving of no less a protection as far as burglary is concerned than any other householder, who at 12 at night has four men trying to kick his door down.”

The judge said it would be wrong to punish the defendants more severely because Mr Rehman’s death was a consequence of the occupier’s reaction to being burgled. But he said to treat the death as mitigation would offend most right-thinking people’s view of burglary. He said Mr Day must have been put in significant fear and distress.