A little boy, who was woken by burglars getting into his home, was physically sick and traumatised by the experience, a court heard.
The six-year-old was disturbed at 4.15am by intruders forcing the front door open at his home at Woodside Road, Beaumont Park, before they stole a television and keys to a £9,000 Skoda car which was driven off from outside.
Joanna Butler-Savage, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court the boy was found half way up the stairs and was so scared by the incident on August 28 he was sick.
One of the burglars, Daniel Jay Hart, was later arrested as a result of intelligence, and also admitted an earlier burglary at another property in Blackmoorfoot Road, Crosland Moor, on August 25.
Miss Butler-Savage said that occupant had gone away for a weekend, leaving her daughter in charge of the house. She returned in the early hours to find attempts had been made to jemmy open the front door and a window.
The burglars got in by smashing the glass pane in the door with a spark plug. More than £2,000 worth of electrical equipment had been taken along with £475 in cash.
She said the Crown accepted Hart’s account that he had acted as a lookout for the earlier burglary for others, receiving only £10, and had driven others in his van to the second property, receiving £20.
Hart, 22, of Glastonbury Drive, Golcar, admitted the burglaries and was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years with 200 hours unpaid work.
