A teenager who made the mistake of breaking into the home of a former soldier has narrowly avoided being locked up.

Richard Lamb and his wife Susan were woken by the 15-year-old after he entered their bungalow in Clara Road, Wrose, Shipley, earlier this month.

But when Mr Lamb, a 53-year-old former tank commander with the 4/7 Dragoon Guards, ordered him to lie down the youth promptly obeyed and stayed there until police arrived.

Yesterday the youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given a six-month supervision order at Bradford Youth Court, where he had pleaded guilty to burglary.

Passing sentence, bench chairman David Shannon asked him: "Are you going to start thinking of somebody else for a change?

"There would be floods of tears in this room if we locked you up and it would be your mother and auntie, as well as you, in floods of tears.

"This is an alternative sentence to custody and you will observe the order to the letter. Should you fail, you will be brought back and, tears or no tears, off you will go."

The order includes a three-month period of intensive supervision and surveillance, as well as an electronically-monitored curfew between the hours of 10pm and 7am.

Kam Dhesi, mitigating, said the youth's mother and aunt had noticed that he was easily led and influenced by others.

He added that they were trying to move him away from mixing with those others.

Describing the night of the burglary, Mr Dhesi said: "When the police arrived he was lying on the floor and the gentleman had his hands on his back.

"When confronted by members of the family, he decided the best thing to do was wait for the police rather than try to make good his escape."

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