A “CAREER burglar” with more than 100 offences on his record has been jailed for breaking into the home of a Bradford family and stealing a child’s computer.

John Reilly, 49, was still on-licence from prison when he committed the “sneak-in” offence at an address on Walmer Villas in Manningham on July 21.

Prosecutor Vincent Blake-Barnard told Bradford Crown Court that at around 9.50am, Reilly entered through the back gate of the property and made his way into the kitchen as a member of the family was taking out some rubbish.

He took an iPad - said to be worth £250 - from on top of a radiator and hid it under his clothes before fleeing.

A few days later, Reilly was seen by a member of the family who lived at the house with the computer, which has never been recovered, outside his home address in Church Street, Manningham.

After reporting the meeting to police, Reilly was arrested after officers recognised him from CCTV footage taken from the family’s home.

Mr Blake-Barnard told the court that Reilly had 39 previous convictions for 106 offences.

He described him as a “career burglar” who had acted “on impulse.”

Stephen Wood, for Reilly, said his client, who pleaded guilty to burglary, accepted he would be facing immediate custody as he was a “seventh-strike burglar” who had received a three-year sentence for the same offence in February 2015.

He said the offence had been “opportunistic” without any kind of confrontation, and that Reilly had been identified by police as he was a “man they know very well.”

Mr Wood added that Reilly had enrolled on a course in prison to try and seek help for his long-standing drug addiction.

Sentencing Reilly to 876 days in prison, Recorder Tahir Khan QC said: “This is not a case where you were out on the street with an implement looking for a place to burgle. You saw an opportunity to walk into the premises.

“But the matters that make this serious are your previous convictions for dwelling house burglaries and the fact you were still on-licence at the time of the offence.”