A man has been jailed for five years after four armed raiders kicked down the door of a Bradford house and shouted: “Give me the money.”

Billy Pryce had a knife while two of his accomplices wielded a baton and a spade and the third brandished an axe, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

The terror unfolded at 9.25pm on January 15 when the couple living at the address in Queensbury were doing a jigsaw in the kitchen, prosecutor Conor Quinn said.

There were shouts of “Police, police, nobody move!” and the door was kicked in.

When the four armed and masked men burst into the house, the demands changed to shouts of: “Give me the money.”

The male householder ran to tell his partner to call the police while he armed himself with two kitchen knives and confronted the intruders.

The four raiders immediately fled pursued barefoot through the snow by the householder who quickly lost sight of them.

The burglars had left a spade, a lighter, a screwdriver and a phone strewn on the drive.

Mr Quinn said the phone was Pryce’s. It contained multiple calls and texts to him, one with the targeted address on it.

Pryce, 25, of Bracken Hall Road, Sheepridge, Huddersfield, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary at today’s hearing after fitness to plead issues had been explored.

He was sentenced on a video link to HMP Leeds where he had been held in custody on remand.

The court heard he had 19 previous convictions for 47 offences, including burglary, wounding and theft. He was also in breach of a community order.

No one else had been arrested in connection with the offence but enquiries were ongoing, Mr Quinn said.

Pryce’s barrister, Jeremy Barton, said he had a very low IQ and was fragile, vulnerable and easily suggestible.

Text messages to his phone that night told him where to go and demanded: “Get on with it, Dingle.”

“There are issues with those behind the scenes. They have some control over him. They have a grip on him, if I can use that phrase,” Mr Barton said.

Pryce was working in prison and taking courses in reading and writing.

He was genuinely remorseful and bitterly regretted getting involved with the burglary.

Recorder Anthony Kelbrick took into account Pryce’s vulnerability and the fact that he was acting under direction that night.

Although it was a Category One offence, the raiders fled when they were confronted and nothing was actually stolen.