A JUDGE has jailed a burglar who broke into a house and stole car keys and bank cards whilst the occupants were asleep.

Bradford Crown Court heard that 24-year-old Brogan Regan used the keys to drive off in a car, which was later recovered.

He was locked up for two years and eight months.

Prosecutor Jessica Lister said people living in the house in Burley-in-Wharfedale went to bed at 10pm on July 9. Their home was secure, and two cars were parked outside.

However at 7am the next day they found a patio door open, a car had gone, and a handbag containing bank cards, a driving licence, and car keys was missing from the living room.

Keys to the second vehicle had also been taken along with keys to the house, two mobile phones, and an iPad tablet.

Regan used the bank cards four times at two separate stores between 2.27am and 3.02am on July 10.

The stolen car was found by police at 9.10am the same day. The other items were not recovered.

Regan, of Mint Street, Bradford Moor, who appeared via video link from HMP Leeds, pleaded guilty to burglary, theft, and fraud by misrepresentation involving four purchases over a half-hour period in the early hours of July 10.

The court heard that he had 38 previous convictions for 82 offences including for theft and burglary.

Mitigating, Leila Talab said Regan, a father of two young children, had been involved with criminality since the age of 12 as he was brought up in an environment where “everyone around him was stealing” and had “kept bad company” that had led him into a downward spiral.

She asked the judge to bear in mind the impact of custody on those children and expressed remorse on Regan’s behalf.

Sentencing Regan to 32 months in prison for dwelling house burglary plus eight months for the car theft, and nine months for the fraud offences, all to run concurrently, His Honour Judge Jonathan Rose rejected the suggestion that affection for his children was “an indicator of your plans for the future”.

He added: “It gives this court no great pleasure to see you here making yet a further appearance for offences of dishonesty and in particular one which involved intrusion into the home of perfectly innocent people in their beds at night when they are entitled to feel both safe and secure, and free from the intrusion of thieves like you.

“It appears that nothing will deter you from your criminality.”