A “BRAZEN” burglar who broke into a student block whilst serving a suspended sentence for shoplifting has been jailed for more than a year.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Abdishakur Ahmed was a drug user who was stealing as a result of his cocaine addiction.

Prosecutor Adam Walker said 25-year-old Ahmed, of no fixed abode in Bradford, was in breach of a suspended sentence order when he was seen rifling through bags in the kitchen of a student block in November last year.

Two weeks later he stole from a branch of Boots.

But he had also burgled a house in Pemberton Drive in Bradford in April, in which he was caught on CCTV taking a £200 bicycle, before committing a series of shoplifting offences that had resulted in him being handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence.

Mr Walker said Ahmed denied any involvement in stealing the bicycle despite being shown CCTV footage.

The court heard that students in the residence on Hayaat Walk in Bradford saw Ahmed “rooting through a shopping bag” in the kitchen but thought nothing of it at the time as they thought he was a person with “legitimate access”.

However, two hours later they found property in the kitchen had been disturbed.

Mr Walker said: “Later in the evening they spoke with security staff [who] told them they had seen this defendant entering the building via kitchen window and subsequently leaving carrying a bag.

“It was later discovered that one of the residents had had her sportswear stolen from the kitchen.”

On this occasion, Ahmed was identified by a police officer who had had previous dealings with him and recognised him from CCTV.

Ahmed, who appeared via video link from HMP Leeds, accepted that he was in breach of the suspended sentence order. He had previously pleaded guilty to the two burglaries and the shop theft.

Mitigating, John Batchelor said Ahmed was “an articulate young man” who had come to the UK in 2015 but had found “a poor choice of friends and crack cocaine”, adding: “All of his offending effectively relates to that.

“He’s got himself into a state because of Class A drugs.”

In jailing Ahmed for a total of 15 months His Honour Judge Colin Burn described the burglary at the student accommodation as “a pretty brazen offence, actually, in front of other people” that took place just seven weeks after the suspended sentence order was imposed.

He added: “There’s no possibility of a further suspended sentence order. It’s just impossible.

“It may well be the position that [whilst in prison] you are motivated to get shot of this Class A drug habit, which had obviously been the downfall of a relatively capable and intelligent individual, ie you.

“Until such time as you manage to get rid of that habit, or that addiction, which essentially is what it is, then there’s a very high risk that you’re going to continue to re-offend.”

He said with credit for his guilty pleas Ahmed would serve seven-and-a-half months less two months that he had spent in jail on remand, and would then be released on licence.

He warned Ahmed that if he burgled again he could face a three-year prison term.