A gang of teen burglars were foiled during a break-in as the victim watched live CCTV footage on his phone and contacted police.
Stephen Davies was watching a movie in his bedroom around 3.30am on January 16 last year when he heard banging downstairs and checked his home’s security cameras on a mobile phone app - only to see three masked figures at the side door.
His parents, Gilbert and Janet, were asleep, and his girlfriend, Chloe Allsopp, was also in the house, in Laburnum Grove in Skelmanthorpe.
He called the police while keeping an eye on the app and when they arrived, the gang ran off, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Deborah Smithers told the court that the teens had come from Bradford and they had stolen the keys to Miss Allsopp’s Jaguar, Gilbert Davies’ Hyundai and a set of house keys.
The keys to the Hyundai were found in a plant in the garden and the house keys were found the following morning in the grounds of nearby St Aidan’s CE Academy by a member of staff.
There was £100 damage to the lock on the door.
Other evidence was also found, including a ski mask with Brandon Gaughan’s DNA around the mouth.
One of the gang, a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was caught by police as he ran from the scene. He was dealt with at an earlier hearing.
The third youth was never traced.
Ms Smithers also said: “There was an attempt earlier that night at around 1.15am by two or three figures, who are then seen dispersing.”
But Balraj Bhatia, defending Gaughan, said: “It was the entry at 3.30am that [Gaughan] was part of.”
He added that his client was young, only a short part of the house was entered, there was no confrontation with the occupants and there was a limited amount of damage.
The 19-year-old, who was 18 at the time of the offence, pleaded guilty to burglary on the second day of a trial.
Based on his change of plea, a jury of eight men and four women also found him guilty.
Gaughan, of Shelby Grange Road in Bradford, was sentenced to three years and four months in detention, of which he will serve half before he can be released on licence. He has two previous convictions for attempted burglaries.
Judge Christopher Batty said: “It’s quite chilling to watch the footage of you outside the house as the occupants were inside and one was watching you on his phone as a direct feed from the CCTV.”
He also ordered the defendant to pay the statutory surcharge and made a forfeiture and destruction order for the tools in the used in the burglary including mole grips and a screwdriver.
