A 24-year-old man is today starting a jail sentence after a burglary gang hoping to steal a stash of cannabis went to the wrong house.

Two days before the night-time attack on a family home in Hammond Crescent, Drighlington, a neighbour spotted two men in a Mitsubishi Shogun vehicle driving up and down the road and prosecutor Stephanie Hancock said the pair were effectively "casing" the property.

On the night of the attempted burglary in April Kyle Thompson and two accomplices turned up at the house at about 10pm and tried to kick in the door.

Miss Hancock told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that the occupants of the house were in bed and when Craig Simpson ran downstairs he was confronted by the would-be intruders who were all wearing balaclavas.

The court heard that the door chain prevented the men from getting into the house, but they kept asking Mr Simpson:"Where's the weed?"

"Mr Simpson repeatedly told them that they had the wrong address and he wasn't growing any cannabis there."

Miss Hancock said the men were persuaded to leave and they fled in the Shogun vehicle, but Thompson dropped a bag at the scene which was later found to contain his bank card.

Thompson, who had previous convictions for offences of robbery and burglary, was also picked out during ID procedures by the neighbour who took down the registration number of the Shogun.

At a hearing before Judge Colin Burn yesterday Thompson, of New Works Road, Bradford, pleaded guilty to the charge of attempted burglary.

The judge said the offence was too serious to be dealt with by way of a suspended sentence and his 27-month term would have to be served immediately.

He said it was fortunate that the door of the house didn't cave in, but Mr Simpson was obviously terrified and there were other people in the house as well.

"Unfortunately I suppose for you, you are the only one who left behind something that identified you," said Judge Burn.

The court heard that Thompson had committed the attempted burglary just a month after he had been made the subject of a community order.

"I accept that that order seems to be going better now, but the fact is that you were subject to an order imposed by the court when you made the decision to commit this quite terrifying offence," the judge told Thompson.

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