A BURGLAR is beginning a 44-month prison sentence – after he accidentally recorded a break-in on his own mobile phone.

Emmanuel Jerome, 23, thought he was switching on the torch function on his mobile during the night-time raid on a house in Huddersfield last autumn.

But instead he activated the video recording function.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday how police discovered the incriminating clips following Jerome’s arrest at the scene of another crime.

Jerome, of Littlewood Croft, Newsome, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit burglaries following a trial last month and Judge John Potter was told that he still protested his innocence.

The phone clips related to a break-in at a house in Adelphi Road, Marsh, which was visited three times by a team of burglars while the owners were away on holiday.

Property worth tens of thousands of pounds was taken and Judge Potter told Jerome: “Significantly, in my view, camera footage of the invasion of that property was captured on your mobile phone.

“You, in my judgement, were an important member of the team that attacked that property on those occasions.”

Although the conspiracy charge related to a spate of burglary attacks over a period between August and November last year the judge accepted that Jerome’s involvement was limited to a four-week period when he took part in the break-in at Adelphi Road and attempted burglaries at three other properties on the night of his arrest.

His co-accused, Levi Castledine, of Oakes, is already behind bars having been sentenced at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor Giles Bridge submitted that Jerome had also acted as a link to Manchester for the selling on of vehicles taken during the raids.

Barrister Martin Sharpe, for Jerome, pointed out that although his client had previous convictions for house burglary as a teenager he had not committed similar offences for more than five years.

Mr Sharpe said Jerome was now a married man and his wife was expecting their first child.

Judge Potter noted that some of the burgled properties had been occupied at the time of the break-ins and property including cars, mobile phones and jewellery had been stolen.

He described the burglaries as “acts of selfishness” with no thought given to the victims or the community.

Det Chief Insp Paul Jeffrey, said: “This has been a good outcome and reinforces the message that Kirklees Division has tackling burglary as its top priority.”

Huddersfield illustrator's Sir Patrick Stewart portrait gets to the point: Click here to read.