A burglar was seen even taking the kitchen sink when he was caught by covert cameras breaking into a police ‘capture house’ in Bradford.

The images show Daniel Patchett manhandling a sink unit from the property, and trying to remove a boiler with another suspect.

Patchett, 20, of Sheldrake Avenue, Lower Grange, was locked up for eight months yesterday by a Bradford Crown Court judge after he admitted two house burglaries committed while serving a community order for an offence of producing cannabis.

The second burglary, committed while on bail for the first one, was at a police capture house in Lower Grange Close, Lower Grange, Bradford, on September 21 this year.

Prosecutor Nikki Peers said Patchett entered the property with another man. A back window had been forced and pipes had been cut to remove a copper boiler. Damage was caused by the leaking boiler.

The suspects were shown on CCTV from within the house. They were chased from the premises by police, alerted by an alarm, and the defendant was caught nearby in wet clothing. He admitted he had entered the house to steal metal.

Miss Peers said the unfurnished property had been set up as a capture house.

Patchett had been given a community order in April after admitting cultivating four cannabis plants in a wardrobe, but had breached the order three times.

The first burglary involved a boarded up property in Lower Grange where £5,000 damage was caused by leaks after the heating system was tampered with.

Judge Peter Benson said the object of the second burglary was to steal pipes to sell for scrap.

He told Patchett: “It seems it was a police capture house. It certainly caught you on the CCTV.”

Patchett was ordered to be detained in a young offender insitution for eight months, but will only serve half of the term.

After the case Sergeant Al Milner, of the North Bradford Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Capture houses are simply one of the many tactics we use to apprehend offenders and bring them to justice.

“There have been 386 fewer house burglaries in Airedale and North Bradford between April and October compared to the same time the previous year. It is tools such as this that are helping us to achieve these results “The footage does highlight how offenders can target properties and we would urge residents to consider their security particularly during the winter months when it falls dark earlier in the day.”