A ‘HANOI-STYLE’ burglar who broke into houses to steal cars and high-value electrical equipment has been jailed for more than five years.

Jonathan Simpson, 37, was already on-licence from prison when he committed a string of burglaries and attempted burglaries in July and August last year.

Prosecutor Martin Robertshaw told Bradford Crown Court that on August 23 last year, Simpson targeted a property in Crowther Avenue, Calverley, removing a uPVC window to get access to the back of the house.

The window was then left carefully propped up against the patio, which Mr Robertshaw said showed “all the hallmarks of professionalism” by “prolific” burglar Simpson.

He stole around £1,500 worth of items including an iPad and laptop before also taking the keys to a Toyota Yaris parked on the drive.

Mr Robertshaw said that car was then used to drive to a house on Hawthorn Drive in Rodley, where Simpson snapped a lock on a patio door to get inside.

The occupiers of the house, a couple with a baby, were disturbed and the child’s mother screamed when she heard noises and saw a torch being shone downstairs.

After she heard a voice saying “let’s go”, Simpson and at least one other man left the house with a £1,000 TV, cash and debit cards, and the keys to the couple’s Mercedes and Audi cars, abandoning the Yaris at the scene.

Mr Robertshaw added that a torch left at the house was found to have been covered in Simpson’s DNA.

The court heard that the two cars were then driven to Findon Terrace in Bradford, the home of 30 year-old Mark Murtagh.

Just before 7am, CCTV footage showed Simpson and Murtagh entering the latter’s house carrying property taken in the burglaries.

The police arrived to find burgled items in the boots of the stolen cars, and inside a rucksack Murtagh was trying to dispose of in his garden.

Simpson was caught as he tried to run away from the garden, and both men were arrested.

The court heard that Simpson, whose address was given as HM Prison Leeds but who was previously of Falkland Road, Ravenscliffe, Bradford, had been given a five-year sentence for similar Hanoi burglaries in 2010, which Mr Robertshaw stated indicated a “clear pattern to his offending.”

He was on-licence at the time of the burglary offences having been sentenced to 69 months in prison in December 2013 for robbing a convenience store in Wyke.

He pleaded guilty to multiple charges of burglary and theft, plus attempted burglary in connection with two failed attempts to break-in to houses in Shipley in the early hours of July 12.

Ian Howard, mitigating, said father-of-one Simpson was now “motivated to break the cycle of his offending”, which had been committed to fund his cocaine addiction.

Murtagh, who the court heard had previous convictions for burglary and theft, admitted two charges of handling stolen goods, with the offences committed just after his release from prison for dangerous driving.

His barrister, Rodney Ferm, described him as “not a hardened offender”, and a “man capable of keeping away from more serious crime.”

Judge Colin Burn told Simpson: “There is no getting away from the word appalling when it comes to your record for dishonesty.”

He said that elements of the burglaries such as removing the patio window showed a “significant amount of criminal skill.”

Referring to the woman disturbed in the Hawthorn Drive raid, he said: “It must have been a terrifying experience for her, as well as being a very serious burglary.”

Simpson was jailed for five-and-a-half years, with Murtagh sentenced to 30 months.