A PROLIFIC burglar who went into a Bradford couple’s bedroom while they slept has been jailed for more than five years for his latest crimes.

Daniel McLoughlin, 47, was on prison licence from a previous four-year jail term for burglary when he got into the house in Thornton via an insecure window and carried out an untidy search of the home while the unsuspecting husband and wife were asleep in a downstairs bedroom.

Prosecutor Bashir Ahmed told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that McLoughlin had even helped himself to some milk and his fingerprints were later found on a coffee tin.

McLoughlin stole about £1,600 worth of property, including jewellery and cash, and then used one of the victims’ bank cards to withdraw another £500 from a nearby cash machine.

Later that same night, McLoughlin went on to burgle another occupied home in the same area and stole a ring and some keys.

McLoughlin pleaded guilty to committing both burglaries during the early hours of October 5 and the court heard that had 29 previous convictions for 70 offences.

In a victim impact statement the female householder said her husband had become unwell as a result of the stress of the burglary and they had both been unable to sleep with the thought that someone had been into their bedroom.

“I am scared to think a stranger has come into my bedroom when we were sleeping. It makes me feel sick and violated,” she said.

Solicitor advocate Amarpal Singh, for McLoughlin, said he had been out on licence for six months without offending, but had then become addicted to drugs again through being around his previous associates.

Recorder Taryn Turner said McLoughlin had a very troubling criminal history and the discovery by the couple that he had been in their bedroom must have been extremely disconcerting for them.

“You even helped yourself to some milk and fingerprints were found on coffee tin,” she said.

“Whether you made yourself a cup of coffee or not is far from clear.

“The complainant has made a personal statement. Unsurprisingly she has spoken of the very great distress of what happened to them.”

Recorder Turner said it was clearly a category one burglary adding:”This was offending which was committed whilst you were on licence. It was obviously committed at night and it seems it may well have been while you were under the influence of drugs.”

She indicated that the total sentence would have been seven years in jail after a trial, but McLoughlin’s early guilty pleas meant it had to be reduced to five years and three months.

“It is a long sentence...but you have to understand that these offences in my judgement are very, very serious,” she added.