A 23-YEAR-old drug addict has been jailed for 27 months after admitting a string of thefts as well as threatening behaviour.

Luke Darling, of Gloucester Avenue, Fagley, pleaded guilty to three charges of theft, in addition to damaging property and threatening behaviour.

Appearing at Bradford Crown Court today, it also emerged that he had breached a suspended sentence of nine months, imposed in 2016.

Judge Jonathan Rose sentenced Darling to 18 months for the latest offences, and ordered that his nine-month suspended sentence be activated in full – totalling 27 months.

“This is the time you clear the decks,” he said. “You have got he chance to do things differently and if you take that chance, we won’t meet again.

“If I meet you in these circumstances again, it’s going to be longer and longer sentences.”

Prosecutor Imran Majid told the court that Darling had knocked on the door of a home in Upper Rushton Road, Fagley, at around 10.30pm on November 30 last year.

The occupant knew the defendant and had had “numerous problems with the defendant’s family” over the years.

“The defendant said some windows had been smashed in his grandad’s house, but he knew this would be a lie and told him to go away.”

Darling persisted and upon being let into the house, tipped over a deep fat fryer and poured cooking oil on the floor, before stealing two handbags, an iPhone and a money box. He returned the handbags as they were empty.

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Earlier that month the defendant was spotted outside a house on Japonica Way, Fagley, shortly after 6am. On November 10, the occupant heard a noise and went to investigate, seeing Darling by his father’s Land Rover with a metal bar. Darling told him to back off and broke into the vehicle to steal a chainsaw.

In addition the court heard how Darling had stolen tools worth £350 from a vehicle on October 12, 2017, while the door had “probably been left insecure”.

Mr Majid also told the court how Darling had got into a dispute over a stolen mobile phone on June 17, outside an address in Killinghall Road. He described “a scuffle” and how Darling had attempted to throw a street sign at a group of men as well as making threats to kill.

When arrested and taken to Trafalgar House police station on December 1, he threw a hot meal into the corridor, causing damage.

Stephen Littlewood, for Darling, said his drug misuse provided some explanation “for how a young man can get into such a pattern of offending” and Darling was starting to tackle this.