A TEENAGE housebreaker who armed himself with a blow torch to burn the lock off a family home at dead of night has been sentenced to three years behind bars.

Mohammed Yasin and three accomplices raided the property in Glen Rise, Baildon, making off with computer equipment, an iPhone, an XBox and the keys to a VW Golf that they stole from the scene.

Yasin, 19, of Girlington Road, Bradford, was arrested when the gang fell asleep in the car in Greenside Lane, Cullingworth, at 7.30am.

They had altered the registration plate with a black marker pen and left the engine running.

A member of the public became suspicious and raised the alarm, prosecutor Camille Morland told Bradford Crown Court. THURS.

The driver was dragged from the car by the police and they had to smash the front passenger window to arrest Yasin. He was wearing rubber gloves and had a bag containing a blow torch. The stolen iPhone was also recovered from the car.

Yasin pleaded guilty to burgling the house on August 19, stealing the VW Golf and going equipped for burglary with the blow torch, mole grips and screwdrivers.

The court heard the offence put him in breach of an 18 month custodial sentence, suspended for two years, for two serious house burglaries.

Yasin’s barrister, Robin Frieze, said he did not commit any offences until his father died, leaving him to help bring up five younger siblings. He began drinking heavily and got in with the wrong people.

He now wanted to put his offending behind him and lead a responsible life to make his family proud of him.

He had been in custody for six weeks and it was his first taste of life behind bars.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, told Yasin he gave him a chance to reform when he imposed the suspended sentence in March this year.

But he had first breached the order by failing to do the hours of unpaid work and then burgled the house at Baildon.

He had burned off the front door lock with a blow torch and searched the downstairs rooms. It was a pre-planned burglary committed with others in the early hours when the family was asleep.

Yasin was sent to a young offender institution for two years for the burglary and 12 months of the suspended sentence was activated on top of that.