BURGLARS across West Yorkshire are being sent a film ... showing a burglar.

The bashful ‘star’ never realised he was being filmed breaking into a house, so he ended up arrested and prosecuted.

Now police hope that by sending convicted criminals the `burglarybuster’ it will deter them from carrying out more offences.

The DVD shows covert camera footage of a burglar breaking into a house in Leeds.

Chief Supt Geoff Dodd, head of West Yorkshire Police’s local policing department, said: “We want burglars to know that we know who they are and that if they break into people’s homes the chances of them getting caught are higher than ever.

“The message on the DVD makes that very clear.

“We are using covert cameras hidden in selected homes to catch burglars in the act and the latest ‘liquid DNA’ technology to help us to trace stolen goods and link offenders to burglary scenes.

“It’s a sad fact that many offenders commit crime to feed a drugs habit and, as well as a warning, these DVDs offer help to get them into treatment.”

He added: “Teams of officers across the force are focusing their attention on house burglaries and running operations to target the relatively small number of known offenders who commit most of the burglaries in an area.’’

The autumn initiative is a major push by West Yorkshire Police to cut burglaries, which traditionally rise at this time of year with the clocks going back and the nights getting darker earlier.

Police are mounting high-visibility patrols and visiting ‘hotspot’ areas to give people help and advice about how to protect their homes.