Burglar is caught in Bradford capture house (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Burglar attacked landlady at The Ginger Goose pub in Bradford

11:10am Saturday 2nd June 2012 in News By Jenny Loweth, T&A Reporter

A burglar was snared when he raided a police “capture house” set up to look like an insecure student flat, a court heard.

Carl Victor, 36, had been preying on the University of Bradford community, burgling an office and stealing ten bicycles from the area. Yesterday, he was jailed for eight months for a series of offences of dishonesty.

Victor, of Pennington Terrace, Little Horton, Bradford, was imprisoned for three years in 2008 for robbery.

On January 22, he punched the landlady of The Ginger Goose in Bradford city centre after she caught him sneaking about in an upstairs private area at the pub. Victor admitted theft of five bottles of drink worth £50 and assaulting Margaret Crompton by hitting her in the ribs.

He was detained by customers at the pub as he tried to flee. His accomplice got away. Arrested and bailed, Victor climbed through an open window at the police “capture house” in Trinity House, Laisteridge Lane, Great Horton, Bradford, on Monday, February 20.

Lured by a planted television and computer games console, he was captured on covert CCTV cameras set up at the house. He was arrested the next day at his home in possession of the stolen property. While in custody awaiting sentence, he owned up to other offences under the police’s “clean slate” policy.

They included burgling an office at the university and stealing ten bicycles, worth £5,670, from the area, all between October 3 last year and February 16. The court heard that none of the bicycles was found.

Victor’s solicitor advocate, Andrew Walker, said his partner had died in 2010. He later began drinking and “lost it completely”, committing offences for money to buy alcohol. He had vowed to make a fresh start.