A prolific burglar has been jailed for six years after a judge said he had to be "off the streets'' to protect householders in the city.

Gary Wind, 28, was convicted of his first break-in when he was only 16 and yesterday he was sentenced in relation to dozens more committed over a three-month period to fund his £30-a-day heroin habit. Bradford Crown Court heard that among a total of 36 burglaries and attempted burglaries, Wind had carried out four attacks on the Chatsworth Court elderly persons complex in Girlington.

Prosecutor Richard Hodgson said Wind, a father-of-one, was finally arrested on March 9 as he was attempting to get into a ground-floor flat at the same premises. Recent burglaries in the area meant the police were keeping watch and when Wind was seen trying to prise open the flat window with a screwdriver they moved in.

Judge Stephen Gullick noted that Wind's longest previous jail term for burglary was a sentence of three years and nine months in December 1996 and he added: "By my calculation, this is the eighth time you have appeared before the courts since 1990 for offences involving burglary or attempted burglary of dwelling houses.'

"The offences you have admitted were all motivated by a desire to fund a heroin habit which now is of some ten years' standing.

"In my view, it is imperative you remain off the streets for a considerable period of time to protect the householders of this city from your activities.''

Following his arrest in March, a search of Wind's bedroom at his address in Hardaker Street uncovered property linking him to four other buglaries. In each of those attacks Wind broke into the properties while the occupants, which included in one case a 67-year-old man, were asleep in bed.

When Wind was taken before the city's magistrates last month he admitted four offences of burglary and one of attempted burglary and they committed him to the crown court for sentence. Yesterday he asked for a further 32 similar offences covering a period from January to March to be taken into account.

His barrister Sophie Drake asked the court to accept that he had expressed genuine remorse. "He was frank with the police,'' she said. "He denies that he has targetted old people. He says he did not know that they (the properties) were occupied by old people.''