A drug addict who ransacked his next door neighbour’s house while she was at work left her so traumatised that she was forced to move, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Daniel Wilson left blood and muddy footprints throughout the social worker’s property during the £3,000 daylight raid on her address in Thornfield Avenue, Odsal , Bradford, on June 26.

He was jailed for 16 months yesterday by Judge Robert Bartfield, who said the single mother and her children had been so distressed they had now moved house.

Wilson, 35, pleaded guilty to burgling the house with another man by smashing a rear kitchen window between 9am and 1pm.

Prosecutor Claire Larton said they got away with a large amount of electrical items, as well as jewellery of sentimental value and a laptop computer with irreplaceable photographs on it.

Wilson pleaded guilty to burglary and asked the court to take into consideration a house break-in two days earlier in Smithy Hill, Bankfoot , Bradford.

Miss Larton said police found him hiding behind a chair at his home next door after the second burglary.

He was bleeding heavily from a cut thumb.

He told officers he helped another man carry heavy items plundered from his neighbour, including a large television set, into a car.

He then went back to steal more property, including the laptop, to fuel his £40 a day addiction to Class A drugs.

The court heard that the burgled family, who had been in their home for six years, were so traumatised they now lived in another area.

Wilson’s barrister, Abigail Langford, said he was “blinded” by his craving for drugs. It was a shambolic break-in by a man who had been a drug addict since he was 17.

Wilson, who was remanded in custody after his arrest, had undergone a voluntary detoxification course in jail.

His partner had moved to another part of Bradford so he would not be returning to live at the burglary scene.

Judge Bartfield said the woman felt her home had been violated. She was greatly distressed and had lost her confidence.

“She felt she had to move from her home that she had put so much into over the years,” he said.