Fraudsters, burglars and drug dealers... just another week at Bradford Crown Court.
Here are some of those brought to justice over the past seven days. Tap any headline or mugshot to read the full story.
Dean, 32, the mother of three children, wept in the dock as the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told her: “You pose a very serious risk and you prey on the elderly and you hurt them.
“The public would be incensed, quite rightly, if I did not impose a sentence that reflects your wickedness and protects the elderly.”
Dean appeared for sentence from custody at Bradford Crown Court after pleading guilty to two burglaries, an attempted burglary, fraud by false representation, theft from a dwelling and five breaches of a Criminal Behaviour Order (CRIMBO).
Prosecutor Ken Green said Dean, of Oxley Gardens, Low Moor, Bradford, had a history of similar offending. She had been jailed in the past and the CRIMBO barred her from attending at anyone’s home to borrow money.
But on January 10, Dean struck again, targeting warden-aided flats in Wyke at 9.30pm. She knocked on the door of a man aged 72 and asked to use his phone. He didn’t have one, so he offered to take her to another flat.
Dean then targeted another address in the complex, knocking on a 90-year-old man’s door and getting him out of bed. She “told a tale of woe,” saying she was desperate for money.
Mr Green said the pensioner felt intimidated and pointed to a Tupperware box in the kitchen. Dean took two £10 notes out of it, made a call from his landline and left. He was “shaken and upset” when he told the warden what had happened the next morning.
Just after midnight on January 11, Dean called on a man aged 76 at the same flats complex. She said her car had broken down, she was worried about her grandad and she needed money to collect her children. The man, who lent her £20 for a taxi, was left feeling insecure and vulnerable.
On January 13, Dean was arrested by the police and admitted all the offences, blaming her drug addiction.
She was released under investigation and at 3pm on February 6, Dean knocked on the back door at an 81-year-old man’s home. She told a sob story about her car breaking down and needing money to collect her children. The man loaned her £15 but Dean, who never gave back the money, had let slip the surname of her children.
Her final offences began on February 20 when she targeted a 59-year-old disabled woman at 1.30am. The woman was woken by Dean banging on the door and ringing the bell. She said her grandma had been rushed to hospital and her car had broken down.
She was lent £20 for a taxi to Bradford Royal Infirmary, promising to pay back the money.
Dean returned the next day and paid back the £20, stealing £60 from the woman’s purse when she went to make her a coffee.
“The defendant had the audacity to return the same night, banging on the door and ringing the bell, but the woman’s sister told her to go away,” Mr Green said. The woman was left struggling to trust people again.
Darren Fellows was caught with stolen property on him after he crashed the small vehicle into a lamppost during a three-minute pursuit across the centre of Bradford.
Fellows, 38 of Braybrook Court, Manningham, Bradford, had 57 previous convictions for 144 offences, Bradford Crown Court heard.
He was on drugs, on licence and on a community order when he and his accomplices struck at the address in Stoney Ridge Road, Heaton, Bradford, at dead of night on January 29.
The group fled with a Ford Mondeo, the Smart car and property including five laptop computers, a £10,000 mountain bike, clothing, sunglasses, a camera and binoculars.
Prosecutor Jessica Randell told the court that the burglars were later caught on CCTV unloading carrier bags of stolen items into a garage.
Miss Randell said the Mondeo had a tracker fitted to it and at 11am the same day, the police spotted it driving in convoy with the Smart car.
Fellows, who was driving the Smart car, made off along White Abbey Road and Sunbridge Road. He drove at 40mph in a 20 zone before hitting a lamppost on Crown Street.
He was chased on foot and caught in the city centre with a stolen phone, camera and binoculars on him.
He pleaded guilty on the day of his trial to burglary, theft of the Smart car, dangerous driving and driving while uninsured and disqualified.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, labelled it: “An extremely nasty and disgraceful burglary,” that had deeply affected the householders.
He banned Fellows from driving for five years.
Adrian Michalowski was earning up to £180 a day from his “job” and would have been a higher rate taxpayer if his income was legal, the judge told him.
Michalowski, 18, of Abingdon Street, Manningham, pleaded guilty to possession of heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply on August 15 last year and January 18 and March 20 this year.
Prosecutor Stephen Wood said the teenager was 17 when he was first caught peddling drugs from a car in Castleford. The police stopped a silver Vauxhall Astra with a smashed wing mirror, broken brake light and no MoT test.
Michalowski, the front seat passenger, was shaking and sweating. He had £945 in cash on him and 18 packages of Class A drugs.
He was released under enquiry and stopped in Priestland Street, Manningham, at the wheel of a VW Jetta. He had drugs on him and a search of his bedroom turned up a stash of cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin, along with dealer lists, bags and electronic scales.
Mr Wood said the drugs found in the house were Michalowski’s stock ready to be bagged up.
He was stopped for the third time in the Lumb Lane area of Manningham driving a Renault Kadjar that had been taken at gunpoint in a robbery.
There were drugs, two phones, mini scales and coins in the vehicle.
Michalowski told the police he earned between £70 and £180 a day from street drug dealing.
In all, the police seized £3,214 worth of drugs and cash.
Michalowski was sent to a young offender institution for four years and two months.
James Hancox pointed the screwdriver at Prince Sabhawal, who was working alone in Alco Save, High Street, Queensbury, at 8.30pm on March 9, Bradford Crown Court heard.
Hancox demanded: “I need some money. Give me your till,” prosecutor Alisha Kaye said.
He then asked for £20 and a bottle of whisky, but Mr Sabhawal refused to hand over anything.
He feared Hancox would stab him with the screwdriver and grabbed a shutter hook to defend himself with.
“The defendant then said ‘If you hit me, you will go to prison’,” Miss Kaye told the court.
Hancox, of High Street, Queensbury, called him “a Paki bastard” and picked up a crate of beer and threatened to smash it over Mr Sabharwal’s head.
The shopkeeper moved round him, got out of the store and locked Hancox in.
When he returned with help from a neighbouring business, Hancox was behind the counter trying to force open the till. He picked up the shutter hook, raised it above his head and grabbed a bottle of whisky.
The police then arrived and had to spray CS Gas at Hancox to restrain and apprehend him.
Hancox made full and frank admissions to the police, saying he had taken £120 worth of heroin and crack cocaine before setting out to rob the shop.
He pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and racially aggravated threatening behaviour.
The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said Hancox was “out of his mind” on drugs and armed himself with a needle and a screwdriver intending to rob the shop.
“This is an exceptionally grave crime,” he said, praising Mr Sabharwal for his “poise and coolness” in the face of a persistent attempt to rob him.
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