Teen burglar jailed over house break-in and BMW police chase

Adam Joe Kindon was just 17 when he broke into the property on Stoney Lane, Hall Green, as the occupier was upstairs, Leeds Crown Court was told.

Prosecutor Carly Green said a female occupier was first awoken by a noise at her home on Lakeland Way in Walton at around 1am March 19, last year.

When she went downstairs, she noticed the shadows of two people stood on the other side of the door.

She banged on the glass and the pair ran and got in a car before speeding off.

The culprits had damaged her door handle during their attempted break in.

A glove found on her driveway was later tested and was found to contain Kindon's DNA.

Forty minutes later a female living on Stoney Lane heard her back door bang, before hearing her partner's BMW being started on the driveway and then being driven away.

The thieves had broken into the house to grab the keys to the car.

The police were called and officers spotted the BMW being driven along the M1, but wearing number plates that had earlier been reported stolen from another vehicle.

They began to chase the BMW and the police helicopter was scrambled to the scene in Middleton, Leeds.

Kindon was spotted getting out and running from the BMW and was tracked by the helicopter.

It is unknown if Kindon, of Sunnyview Terrace, Beeston, had been the driver, so no driving charges were added.

No charges relating to the burglaries or the driving were brought against a second suspect.

Kindon was found in possession of a pair of sliders that had been taken from the property on Stoney Lane.

He initially denied any involvement during questioning, but later said he was only a look out.

He admitted a charge of burglary, theft of a motor vehicle, and one count of attempted burglary.

A probation report into Kindon was read out in court, in which he said he had committed the crime to pay off a drugs debt amassed by his heavy cocaine use.

He struggles to read and write but has been working ad hoc helping a horse trainer.

Mitigating, Richard Reed said: "Since these offences he has kept out of trouble and seems to have got himself back on track, working on a regular basis."

Judge Simon Batiste jailed the 18-year-old for 21 months at a young offenders' institution and told him: "This was, in my view, a professional crime that was committed.

"Despite your age only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified."