A blunder by security staff at a Bradford court freed a night-time house burglar to strike again hours later.

Mark Calvert, held in custody after breaking into a house where a woman slept alone, was released in error after he was cleared of a minor offence at the city's Magistrates Court.

He was arrested again after prowling round a house in Beacon Street, Wibsey, that night, where a mother and her ten-year-old son were asleep.

Calvert made off in the family's car with stolen property valued at £600.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Calvert, 30, of Plimsoll Street, East Bowling, had ten convictions for house breaking, stretching back over almost 20 years.

He was jailed for five years by a judge who branded his record "dreadful". Recorder Felicity Davies said Calvert burgled homes at night, searching them thoroughly while the occupants slept.

"It is a terrifying thought for people to realise in the morning that you have been prowling round in their home while they were asleep," she said.

The judge said it was difficult for householders to regain their sense of security after a burglary.

Calvert was convicted by a jury of burgling a house in Smith Avenue, Odsal, on April 15. He was also found guilty of burgling the Wibsey home overnight, between June 8 and 9, taking the family car without consent and driving while disqualified.

Calvert pleaded guilty before the trial to aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified during a police chase after the Odsal break-in.

He took the housholder's car and drove at 70mph in a 30mph zone, leaping out of the moving vehicle to try to evade arrest.

After the verdicts, prosecutor Giles Bridge said Calvert appeared before Bradford magistrates on June 8 on technical bail to contest a separate charge of taking a vehicle without consent.

He was acquitted and then released in error by security staff at the court. He walked out of the building at 4.30pm.

That same night Calvert struck at the house in Wibsey where the mother and child were sleeping. He crept into the woman's bedroom but she did not wake because she had taken sleeping pills.

After Wright was convicted, his barrister Richard Wright said his partner was expecting their child in two weeks.