A TEENAGE burglar was dragged by his feet shouting and screaming when he was caught red-handed on the roof of a house he had just ransacked.

The residents of Southfield Square, Manningham, were “less than impressed” to discover their neighbour’s bedroom had been entered through a skylight and stripped of £1,570 of property, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Usama Zaid, 18, was taken to hospital for a check-up after he was cornered and left with more than bumps and bruises, his solicitor advocate, Nicholas Leadbeater, said.

Zaid and a boy aged 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were in Bradford city centre for a night out when they decided to enter the terrace property through an open skylight late on May 6.

Prosecutor, Peter Byrne, said the window was open because it was a warm evening.

A mother and her daughters were in the house at the time but did not realise an intruder was on the premises.

The woman’s son came home to find his room ransacked, with stuff strewn all over the floor, and the burglars still on the roof.

Zaid, of Cherry Place, Burmantofts, Leeds, was detained by angry residents until the police arrived.

“They came upon a scene of chaos, with the defendant being dragged by his feet, shouting and screaming,” Mr Byrne said.

Zaid’s 16-year-old accomplice was arrested when he climbed down from the roof.

He had items of stolen property in his possession.

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Mr Leadbeater said that Zaid had no previous convictions.

It was an opportunistic burglary after alcohol and cannabis had affected his decision making.

Zaid had been working as a waiter but now planned to enrol on a civil engineering course at Leeds Building College.

He and his co-accused, who is being dealt with by the youth court, were wandering around Bradford after a night out when they decided to commit the offence.

“Unsurprisingly, the residents of Southfield Square were less than impressed and you heard about the rough and ready way they presented him to the police,” Mr Leadbeater told the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC.

“The residents were hugely unhappy about what they had done and that they were on their roofs.”

Judge Thomas sentenced Zaid to 15 months detention in a young offender institution, suspended for two years, with 100 hours of unpaid work.

He warned him: “House burglars get sent into prison. It is a desperately fearful crime for the victims.”

Reserving any breaches of the sentence to himself, the judge urged Zaid to go to college and make something of his life rather than continuing to commit offences and ending up behind bars.