A BURGLAR who crashed an Audi S3 he stole in a night-time house break-in must spend longer behind bars.

Jason Hepworth, who is already serving 21 months’ imprisonment for burglary, attempted burglary and dangerous driving, was jailed for 11 months on top of that at Bradford Crown Court.

Hepworth, 39, of HMP Wealstun, pleaded guilty by video link to burgling a house in Burneston Gardens, Buttershaw, Bradford, on November 20 last year and stealing a laptop computer, two iPads, a purse and the keys to the Audi.

He further admitted stealing the high-powered car and driving it while disqualified.

Prosecutor Philip Adams told the court that Hepworth targeted the home of his former partner while she and her children were asleep.

He did £100 damage to the door lock and made off with the stolen property in the Audi.

Soon afterwards, the car was involved in a collision, the court heard.

Hepworth fled from the crash scene on foot.

His DNA was found in the vehicle but Hepworth denied the offences.

Mr Adams said he had 33 previous convictions for 58 offences.

Those offences included house burglary when he was a youth, aggravated vehicle taking, handling stolen goods, deception, battery and harassment.

When he was jailed in March, the court heard that Hepworth led the police on a high-speed car chase in a Range Rover taken in a burglary in Halifax.

He smashed a window with a stone in the early morning raid, the court heard.

The incident left a mother and daughter terrified.

The stolen vehicle was fitted with a tracking device and after police were alerted, Hepworth led them through several Bradford housing estates before crashing in Buttershaw.

He ran off but the police helicopter tracked him to his home.

When officers knocked on the door, Hepworth answered it in his dressing gown.

But the police saw a pile of clothes that they recognised he had been wearing.

Hepworth’s solicitor advocate, Ashok Khullar, said his client had a desperate problem with drugs and alcohol at the time of the offences.

While in prison, he had attended a drugs awareness course and achieved enhanced prisoner status.

He was working as a window cleaner and was now “a different person,” Mr Khullar said.

The court heard that Hepworth’s earliest release date was next March and he was already banned from driving for three years.

Judge Jonathan Gibson sentenced him to 11 months imprisonment to run consecutively to the sentence he is serving.

He was banned from driving for seven months.

Judge Gibson told Hepworth he had burgled an occupied house at night, using some sort of tool to break in. But he was now free from drugs and had achieved enhanced prisoner status because he was doing so well in custody.