A burglar was arrested after he was captured on CCTV wobbling along on a stolen bicycle carrying his ill-gotten gains.

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday(thurs) when he went into a flat in Oaks Road, Batley, Nathan Anthony Burton was already on bail for a break-in at the Perfect Home shop in the Princess of Wales precinct in Dewsbury when valuable electrical items were stolen.

The occupier had left it locked when she went to work at 7.15am on November 27 but returned home to find an intruder had forced a window in the living room.

Rukhshanda Hussain, prosecuting, said items stolen included her laptop, a camera, a Kindle and some jewellery. She said the victim was extremely upset at the discovery and was shaking and crying when she phoned her father for help.

Police made inquiries in the neighbourhood and a £500 bike was found to missing from outside another address and CCTV footage showed Burton on the bike carrying a blue bag.

“He had very little control of the bike because of the property he was carrying,” she said. “The footage was seen by a police officer who recognised him and he was arrested.”

Burton, 36 of Machel Mills, Whitehall Way, Dewsbury, was jailed for a total of four years after admitting burglary and theft. He also asked for nine other offences of commercial burglary and theft to be taken into consideration.

Anastasis Tassou representing Burton told the court his offending stemmed from his need to finance his taking of hard drugs including crack cocaine and heroin.

But the reason he had turned to drugs in the first place was to try and forget an ordeal in his past when in 1995 he was violently kidnapped and held a prisoner in a cellar.

He was beaten, he was tied up and was only eventually rescued because an off duty police officer had heard his screams and went into the property and discovered him.

Mr Tassou said Burton had never received any counselling for that trauma and dealt with it by abusing drugs.

“The effect has been a spiral of drug taking,” said Mr Tassou.

During his latest remand in custody he had managed to reduce his methadone prescription from 140 milligrammes to 20 milligrammes. He knew he was facing a long sentence but welcomed the assistance he was being given.

Jailing Burton, Judge Tom Bayliss QC said the flat burglary had left his victim nervous of living in her own home and had deprived her of sentimental jewellery given to her for her 21st birthday as well as electrical goods.

Click here to take you back to more Huddersfield news .

Want to read, watch and hear more? You can download the FREE Examiner Apple App  here , the FREE Examiner Android App  here  or you can view the paper as an e-edition on your Apple, Android or Kindle device by clicking  here

To follow us on Twitter click here