TWO men disturbed trying to burgle a Bradford house at night were arrested after they were tracked by the police helicopter using heat seeking equipment.

Michael Crosdale and Aiden Bairstow fled from outside an address in The Covet, Apperley Bridge, when a woman shouted at them from a bedroom window, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

They had arrived in the area in a white Transit van found to contain a torch, gloves, a screwdriver and a hammer.

Crosdale, 21, of Valley View, Baildon, was flushed out from bushes by a police dog. A black balaclava found nearby had his DNA on it.

Bairstow, 22, of Flawith Drive, Fagley, Bradford, threw away his shoes and trousers, and the keys to the van, as he ran off.

Both men pleaded guilty to going equipped for burglary.

Crosdale, who was on licence for a sentence of conspiracy to burgle, and on bail for dangerous driving, was jailed for a total of 20 months.

Bairstow was sentenced to seven months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with 200 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity requirement with the probation service.

Prosecutor Kathryn Stuckey said Crosdale was pursued by the police in the Ravenscliffe area of Bradford when they saw him driving with a flat tyre at 1.25pm on April 16 last year.

A bus had to swerve to avoid his Ford Focus and he lost control of it, knocking down a concrete lamppost.

Crosdale drove on, with a second flat tyre, before becoming stuck on waste ground in rubble and shrubs.

He also admitted having no licence or insurance.

He and Bairstow were apprehended on July 7 for going equipped in Idle, Bradford, after a member of the public reported two men behaving suspiciously.

A call then came in from the woman householder, woken by a noise at the front of her home.

Four officers searched the area and the helicopter was scrambled to track down the suspects.

Tahir Hanif, Crosdale's solicitor advocate, said the driving was "a stupid and foolish act on his part."

In the last six months he had changed his life, doing voluntary work, keeping out of trouble and training to be a builder's labourer.

Andrew Petterson, for Bairstow, said he was playing an active role in bringing up his young son. He was carer for his ill mother and had no previous convictions for offences of burglary.