A BRADFORD judge is demanding to know why it took almost two years to bring a man to justice for raiding £15,000 of computers from an engineering college in the city.

Paul Hampson was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court after breaking into Appris Management in Sticker Lane, Laisterdyke, on June 6, 2018.

Judge Jonathan Rose asked prosecutor Paul Nicholson to write to the police to demand an explanation for the unacceptable delay.

Hampson, 39, who has since moved from Bradford to Market Place, Bridlington, pleaded guilty to burgling the college in Btal House.

Judge Rose said he would have been facing a jail sentence of around two years if he had been sentenced in the months following the offence.

But Hampson had since turned his life around. He had curbed his heavy drinking, stopped committing crimes and moved to the East Yorkshire seaside resort to make a fresh start with his partner.

The court heard that he was arrested ten days after the break-in when a DNA match was made to blood found at the scene.

But it was 11 months until pre charge advice was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service and then the postal requisition procedure had spun things out further.

Mr Nicholson said Hampson got into the building by smashing a second floor window in the night.

He made off with all 15 of the college’s laptop computers, stored together in a caddy and worth £1,000 each.

The break-in was discovered by the training centre manager early the following morning. Hampson, an alcoholic at the time, had 22 previous convictions for 38 offences, including house burglary, robbery, shoplifting, assault and criminal damage.

In February 2009, Hampson was jailed for an offence of wounding.

He at first denied the burglary, saying he suffered from blackouts and did not know how he had cut his hand.

Mr Nicholson said the break-in caused a significant degree of financial loss and had an impact on the students who had work on the stolen computers.

Hampson’s solicitor advocate, Julian White, said his client’s life was blighted by alcohol and drugs. Although he was still taking heroin, he now drank only very modest amounts.

Judge Rose sentenced Hampson to 16 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a six month drug rehabilitation requirement and a six month overnight curfew.

He said that sending him to prison now would cause greater damage than helping him in the community.

“Please don’t throw the opportunity away,” the judge told Hampson.