TWO "foolish" men who targeted two jewellers in six hours have been jailed.

Andrew Smith, 32, and Martin Strickland, 39, raided H&T Pawnbrokers in James Street in Bradford city centre and Craven Jewellers in High Street, Yeadon, on March 30.

The pair pleaded guilty to charges of burglary and attempted burglary at a hearing last month.

Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that both men went into H&T Pawnbrokers at around 9am with one speaking to staff members while the other checked where CCTV cameras were.

After leaving the shop, they returned in a Vauxhall Corsa. They drove by twice, then stopped on the third occasion and one of the men, believed to have been Smith, jumped out of the car and ran at the display window with an axe.

Despite landing “several heavy two-handed blows”, the glass failed to break and shop staff lowered the security shutters.

The men, both wearing balaclavas, both sped off in the Corsa, which was then used in an almost identical offence at Craven Jewellers that afternoon.

The pair visited the store just after 1pm, returning at around 3.05pm in the car. One of the men, again thought to be Smith, jumped out and broke the window with a lump hammer. He reached inside for jewellery, despite the shop owner’s attempt to grab his gloved hand.

Police traced the vehicle within three hours to Manor Row in Bradford city centre and arrested the men. Smith, of Rockwell Lane, Thorpe Edge, Bradford, had jewellery taken in the second raid in his pockets. Strickland, of Leeds Road, Thackley, Bradford, had the Cora's keys and jewellery was in the vehicle.

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Camille Morland, mitigating, described the pair’s offending as “unsophisticated”, saying the venture was “not the best plan ever hatched by offenders of this kind.”

She said both men had committed the “foolish, reckless, and serious” offences as they were being threatened by drug dealers.

On the Yeadon raid, Judge Robert Bartfield said: “This was an old-fashioned smash-and-grab burglary. How you thought you were likely to get off frankly escapes me.

“They were certainly determined offences”

Smith, who has 42 convictions for 84 offences, was also sentenced for a separate burglary at a fish and chip shop on Idle Road in November last year. The court heard he had smashed the front window of the shop, causing £500 worth of damage, before breaking into the tills and stealing around £120.

He was jailed for 40 months and Strickland sentenced to 32 months.