A HOODIE-wearing burglar who broke into his next-door neighbour’s home was trapped inside when police surrounded the house and blocked his only way out.

Bradford Crown Court heard how drunken Nathan Duane had forced a window to get into the house in Bradford when his neighbour was out playing cricket.

But after switching on the living room light at 11.20pm he was spotted inside by another nearby resident who rang 999.

Prosecutor Ryan Donoghue said several officers in cars and vans turned up.

One saw Duane, in a dark-coloured hoodie and blue gloves, attempting to clamber out of a ground-floor rear window.

When he saw the police’s torchlight he went back inside.

Mr Donoghue said: “Police then placed the house under containment and called for assistance. The defendant then presented himself at a glass panel inside the property where a side door was located and told officers he was unable to get out.”

Duane was removed from the house when the owner arrived home with a key. By that time he had removed his shoes and the gloves. The hoodie was found in the bathroom airing cupboard.

When arrested and asked why he was in the house he said: “Because I broke in. What do you want me to say?”

Duane, 34, of Moore Avenue, Wibsey, was convicted of burglary after a trial.

Mitigating, John Bottomley said Duane was drunk at the time and had had issues with cocaine use, which he had since addressed.

He described the burglary as “unusual on many counts” as it involved his next-door neighbour who had not made a statement about the incident.

Sentencing Duane to 18 months in prison suspended for two years, Mr Recorder Tony Watkin noted he had been “heavily intoxicated” at the time.

He said: “You intended, when you went into your neighbour’s house next door to you, to burgle them.

“You caused damage to the house. You invaded their private space. They have to live next door to you every day. One can only imagine how difficult that must be knowing that it’s the burglar of their home that lives next door to them.

“You were caught red-handed.”

He ordered Duane to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work, to undertake 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days, to pay £100 in compensation and costs of £300.