Two men have been jailed for eight years each for a “campaign of burglary” in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester including houses in Holmfirth.

Leeds Crown Court heard Daniel Kaye and Jonathan Cahill stole thousands of pounds worth of readily-saleable items such as laptops and phones as well as taking keys and driving away expensive cars.

Nicholas Askins prosecuting said they frequently accessed their targeted properties by forcing locks.

In the early hours of November 3 last year a house in Shawfield Avenue, Holmfirth was burgled using that method while the occupiers were asleep.

A handbag, iPad, two laptops, a SatNav and two rucksacks worth a total of £1,800 were stolen along with the keys to an Audi A1 worth £18,000 which was also driven off.

By 8.15pm that night a text message was sent from Cahill’s mobile phone offering to sell the Audi and at 7.28pm on November 4 the phone received a text referring to its purchase.

Mr Askins told the court also overnight on November 2, a house in Woodhead Road, Holmfirth was burgled while the occupier was in bed.

The lock on the front UPVC door was snapped off and a television was removed from the wall but left behind and although car keys were stolen the vehicle was not taken.

A house in Sheffield was also targeted that night, one of 17 visited during the burglary campaign in October and November last year, which also included other houses in Wakefield, Greater Manchester and Pontefract.

Mr Askins said Cahill was arrested on November 7 in the shop at the Three Nuns Shell Petrol Station in Mirfield having just driven there in an Insignia car which was bearing a false registration number and had been stolen on an earlier occasion after a burglary in Manchester.

When the vehicle was searched Pc Sue Marshall also discovered some of the property stolen in earlier burglaries.

Kaye was arrested in Manchester three days later after he tried to escape arrest by climbing on to the roof of a house but slipped and fell off.

He told an officer later guarding him in hospital that he always forced locks but never went upstairs once inside a property.

James Littlehales representing Kaye said he had reverted to misusing drugs after his last release from custody and offended to fund his habit and pay debts.

Tim Capstick for Cahill said he was not the prime mover and was effectively the driver involved in eight burglaries.

Kaye, 31 of Park Street, Horbury and Cahill, 30, of no fixed address each admitted conspiracy to burgle.

Jailing them Judge James Spencer QC said they were 'mature men who decided to embark on a campaign of burglary in Great Manchester and West Yorkshire over a period of time committing very many offences.'