THREE men have been jailed for their roles in a plot to burgle convenience stores of high value hauls of cigarettes and tobacco.

Liam Day, Joshua Scarfe and Gary Nudds all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle stores in West Yorkshire, between September and November, 2014.

Day, 28, of Brighouse Road, Queensbury, pleaded guilty to four burglaries and was jailed for 32 months at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

Scarfe, 25, of no fixed address, was imprisoned for 18 months for two burglaries on one night.

Nudds, 49, of Thirsk Grange, Clayton, Bradford, was jailed for 17 months for a single burglary at the Co-op on High Street, Queensbury.

Colin Fenton, 49, also of Thirsk Grange, admitted dishonestly handling bags of stolen property.

He was sentenced to six months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a community order and 12 months supervision.

Prosecutor Camille Morland told the court the three burglars were part of a plot to break into shops overnight and bundle large amounts of cigarettes and tobacco into a large builders' sack.

Nudds was one of three men in black balaclavas who cut through the metal shutters at the Co-op in Queensbury on September 21, 2014. They scooped £4,349 worth of cigarettes into the sack and made off, after doing £1,100 damage.

They were pursued by the police and Nudds crashed the getaway car through a fence into a field.

He was caught after his DNA was found on the vehicle's airbag.

Day burgled almost £6,000 of cigarettes from McColls store in Well Lane, Halifax.

A saw was used to break in and a large amount of tobacco and cigarettes were stolen.

He also burgled the Co-op in Wrose Road, Shipley, and teamed up with Scarfe to burgle Co-ops on Bolton Road, Bradford, and Burnley Road, Mytholmroyd.

Day and Scarfe committed their two break-ins overnight on November, 17, 2014.

They activated the smoke security screen at the Bradford store and got away with just £102 worth of property.

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A short time later, they burgled the Co-op in Mytholmroyd, using an angle grinder to cut the metal shutters. They failed to smash their way into the cigarette cabinet and escaped with razor blades.

Miss Morland said their getaway car, on false number plates, was abandoned in Queensbury and police seized the stolen razor blades, a crowbar and a metal bar from it.

Ashok Khullar, representing Day, said he had battled a cocaine addiction for many years and was desperate to renew links with his family.

Ken Green, barrister for Nudds, said he had suffered a serious head injury since burgling the store, resulting in severe memory loss.

Mohammed Hussain, for Scarfe, said he played a limit role on one night.

Fenton's solicitor advocate, Tom Rushbrooke, said he deeply regretted his actions. He was a short-term custodian of stolen property and gained nothing from it.