A man has been jailed for three and a half years for dishonestly handling high-performance cars and jewellery of great sentimental value stolen in professional house burglaries.

Luke Lanham, 23, was locked up at Bradford Crown Court today after a spree of offending last summer.

He pleaded guilty to handling an Audi SQ5 stolen from outside a house in Ilkley on August 8 last year. He was caught on CCTV three days later filling it with petrol at a garage in Menston, prosecutor Chloe Hudson said.

Later that same day the car, which had cloned plates, was involved in a police pursuit in the Bradford area and Lanham and another male were seen running from the scene.

In another burglary, a Porsche Boxster, bought eight weeks earlier for £42,000, was stolen from a house in Moortown, Leeds.

Miss Hudson said the Porsche was recovered with the help of a tracker device. The keys were later found in the Audi linked to Lanham.

The police also found jewellery of great sentimental value in the boot of the Audi. It had been stolen when a bungalow in the Otley area was ransacked. The haul included an engagement ring and wedding rings belonging to the late mother of the female house-holder.

Lanham, whose address was given as HMP Leeds, admitted handling the two stolen cars and the jewellery. He also pleaded guilty to an attempted burglary in North Leeds when he was confronted by the female householder and fled the scene.

The court heard that he had a previous conviction for dangerous driving and he also admitted two charges of driving while disqualified.

Lanham was arrested at the end of August last year when he was caught behind the wheel of a Citroen car in Apperley Bridge. He had been remanded in custody since.

Miss Hudson said he had never held a full driving licence.

Camille Morland, Lanham’s barrister, said he had been addicted to cocaine for a couple of years following a number of family bereavements. He had run up a £1,000 drugs debt and was being threatened.

Miss Morland said he committed the offences under some pressure and with others.

He was driving the two high-value cars out of fear and wanting to repay the debt.

Recorder Taryn Turner said Lanham had been acting with others who were not before the court.

“You appear before me for sentence for a raft of criminal offences all committed during what can only be described as a crimewave or spree last August,” she told him.

Lanham was banned from driving for three years and nine months.