A BURGLAR has been jailed after driving a getaway car the wrong way down the M62 and trying to escape from police by hiding in a tree.

Samuel Mileham, 24, had travelled from Keighley to target a house in Ripponden with fellow gang members Caius Hesling, 25, and Sevi Conley, 19, on July 20, breaking into a car to get keys to gain access to the property.

All three were jailed for burglary at Bradford Crown Court, with Mileham also punished for dangerous driving after leading police on a dramatic 20-minute chase towards Greater Manchester.

Prosecutor Richard Walters told the court that the trio had travelled to Ripponden in the early hours of the morning and broken into the house using keys stolen from an Audi parked on the drive.

They stole a purse containing keys to the car, which Mr Walters said were then hidden near the house with a view to returning and stealing the vehicle later in the night.

After being disturbed by an alarm, a neighbour saw the three men running from the address and alerted police.

The trio fled the scene in a silver Peugeot and drove towards Littleborough, ignoring attempts by police to stop their vehicle.

Mr Wilson said the pursuit lasted around 20 minutes and took in about 20 miles, with Mileham driving at speeds of up to 70mph through built-up areas and running a number of red lights.

The chase continued onto the A627(M) in Rochdale, with police forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision as Mileham drove down the carriageway in the wrong direction.

On entering the M62, he drove the wrong way down the hard shoulder of the motorway through a section of roadworks, at which point the tracking of the car was transferred to a police helicopter as the road pursuit was deemed "too dangerous."

Mileham then crashed the car into a garden wall, at which point the three men abandoned the vehicle and fled the scene.

After being tracked by police dogs, Mileham was arrested after being found trying to hide up a tree.

In a victim statement, the wife of the couple subjected to the burglary said the experience had left her feeling "anxious", especially when alone in the house.

Ken Green, mitigating, said it was "fortunate" no-one had been injured in the chase.

Sentencing Mileham, of Ada Street, Keighley, to two and a half years in prison, Judge Peter Benson said: "You had obviously targeted this house when the occupants, a husband and wife and their son, were at home.

"You hid the keys to wait for the alarm to stop so you could go back and steal the car.

"You drove the wrong way down the M62 at which point the police felt it was too dangerous to continue the pursuit and left it to the helicopter to deal with.

"You drove in a truly horrifying way."

Hesling, of Hainworth Wood Road, Keighley, was jailed for 896 days for burglary, with Conley, of North Dean Road, Keighley, sentenced to two years in a young offenders institution for the same offence.

The pair had previously been locked up for a total of eight years in October 2011 after robbing a vulnerable man in his nightclothes at his Silsden home, threatening him with a crowbar and stealing a ring from his finger.