A TEENAGE 'three strikes" burglar has been warned by a judge that his sentences will only get longer if he carries on breaking into people's homes.

Harrison Wood, 18, was locked up for 876 days at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

His co-accused, Mohsin Ahmed, 19, received a total of 20 months behind bars.

Wood, of Hainworth Road, Keighley, pleaded guilty to burgling a three bedroom detached house in Dale View Grove, Keighley, on December 20 last year.

He and Ahmed, of Devonshire Street, Keighley, jointly admitted burgling two homes in the town's Carlby Grove and Ingrow Lane on August 7 this year.

Prosecutor James Lake said the woman householder was on holiday when Wood and an accomplice smashed a window to break into the property in Dale View Grove.

The house was ransacked, with drawers opened and beds overturned.

The raiders escaped with a laptop computer, i-Pad and bottles of alcohol.

Footprints at the scene matched Wood's shoes and he was caught at a house in East Parade, Keighley, with the stolen laptop, Mr Lake said.

Ahmed was look-out for the two burglaries on August 7, the court was told.

The house in Carlby Grove was searched after a pane of glass was removed from a back window.

The intruders, including Wood, stole a laptop computer, jewellery valued at up to £1,500 and a small quantity of cash.

Soon afterwards, two men were seen fleeing from a detached bungalow in Ingrow Lane. The burglar alarm was sounding and nothing had been taken.

Mr Lake said Ahmed committed the burglaries days after being given a suspended custodial sentence for an offence of affray.

He had a previous conviction for house burglary and asked the court to take into consideration 22 further offences admitted under the police's 'clean slate' provision.

Wood asked for eight more offences to be considered, also as 'clean slate' confessions.

His barrister, Jayne Beckett, said the teenager lost his mother earlier this year and had suffered health problems.

He had been held in custody and had fully co-operated with the police investigation.

Ash Mahmood, for Ahmed, said he fully accepted that he would receive a custodial sentence.

He was look-out on the burglaries and so did not actually break into the homes.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC sentenced Ahmed to ten months in a young offender institution for the burglaries, with another ten months on top for the affray.

The judge warned Wood unless he mended his ways, he would spent more and more of his life behind bars.

"You are setting out to become quite a serious problem for the police and householders in this area," he told him.