A teenager who stole property from his next-door neighbour's home by climbing through a hole in their adjoining lofts has been given a suspended custodial sentence.
Craig Butterworth, 19, of Freshfield Gardens, Allerton, Bradford, had seen his neighbour set off to school with her child last November and while his own mother was outside he took the opportunity to get into the house via the loft space.
Prosecutor Stephen Wood said Butterworth stole a laptop, a webcam and headphones valued at about £700 and hid them under insulation in the loft.
When his neighbour returned she realised the items had gone and eventually she found the hole between the two attics.
Butterworth was arrested and police later recovered all the stolen property from the loft.
The teenager, who pleaded guilty to burglary at a previous court hearing, was sentenced to six months in a young offenders' institution, but Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC suspended the sentence for 12 months.
Butterworth will, however, be supervised for the next year and he will also have to do 100 hours.
Butterworth's barrister Emma Downing said he was the first to accept that the offence was a mean one.
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