A MAN has been jailed following a spate of burglaries and shop thefts in Bradford, York and the West Midlands.

Paul Capuvanno, 51, was told to ‘sort himself out’ by the judge after he was jailed for the offences committed between 2018 and earlier this year. He is reported to be suffering from an underlying personality disorder and delusional and paranoid traits caused by long-term use of class A drugs, including crack cocaine, heroin and ecstasy, during his years of offending.

He faced 17 charges including for burglary, possession of class A drugs, assaulting an emergency worker and shop and charity box thefts.

He faced charges of stealing charity boxes from a Morrisons store and a fish and chip shop in 2020.

Other charges he faced included for burglaries at two restaurants in December 2020. In the first, at Aldo’s Italian Restaurant in Harrogate Road, Greengates, Bradford, he stole two bottles of wine, £200 cash, a black jacket, Air Max trainers and an iPhone worth £360.

He also broke into Kashmiri Bazaar, Barkerend Road, Bradford, stealing a till tray to the value of £150.

Capuvanno also tried to enter DIY in Pawson Street, Bradford, via its roof with intent to steal. But the building’s alarm was triggered by him and staff came on-site to confront him before he could go inside.

He also headbutted an emergency worker, namely a police officer, on one of the occasions he was arrested, Bradford Crown Court heard on Tuesday, October 12.

He broke into the Victoria pub in Bradford, on September 12, 2019, where he smashed a window and a door, stole £788 from a till and £38 from a charity box.

He was arrested by police in possession of seven wraps of heroin, was charged with possession of a bladed article, a knife, on Parratt Row, Bradford, on February 20, 2021.

Capuvanno was told he will serve less than half of that sentence before being released on licence. This was reduced as he has already been tagged for more than 200 days last year.

He broke into the Deli Cafe in Thornton Road, Bradford, and McDonald’s in Kirkgate, Bradford, at night, smashing windows at both sites to steal charity boxes from both.

In more of the charges, Capuvanno, and his ex-wife Donna Capuvanno, travelled by taxi to York to commit shop thefts in November 2018. The latter has already been sentenced for the offences.

They stole £651 worth of items from Asda and TK Maxx at Monk Cross Shopping Centre in York, where they used pliers to remove security labels, then taking them to the taxi they had arrived in to go back and commit more thefts.

They later returned to York to steal clothing, worth a total of £360, from a Marks & Spencer and were caught on the store’s CCTV putting the stolen items into a holdall. They committed these offences on bail, just hours after they had appeared before magistrates’ court in the city.

In another charge, Paul Capuvanno drove to Worcester on October 24, 2019, and broke into a house in the city during the daytime, smashing a window pane, setting off the home’s alarm, alerting neighbours, but not before he had stolen jewellery worth £13,000, but did drop some of it.

He was jailed for a total of two years five months for the burglary he committed in Worcester, while 10 of the other charges he admitted are to run concurrently and the remaining six of the 17 charges will lie on file. He will serve half that period, 14.5 months, less time on remand which amounts to about eight months.

In mitigation, the court heard Capuvanno has been unwell ‘for a large period of the time he has offended’.

His mitigating solicitor said: “If he is to put his life in order, he needs to sort himself out and keep away from prohibited substances.

“He is in a much better physical and mental shape than he has been for a very long time.”

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Richard Mansell QC, told Capuvanno: “It is time to sort yourself out.

“You are in a different place now. At 51, you face a choice now where to go next

“The offending here was committed to finance your drug habit.

“You are living proof, if it were needed, of the evils of controlled drugs, particularly class A drugs, heroin and crack cocaine, which you started abusing at least 17 years ago in around 2004, if not before.

“Not only has it led you down the path of a life of crime but it has seriously and adversely affected your mental health.

“In truth, you have been a regular offender for years now and it has largely been down to your abuse of controlled drugs.

“I am not unsympathetic to the plight you have found yourself in and I suspect you have run up drugs debts, or fallen in with bad people, which may have motivated your offending.”