A BOGUS electrician made off with more than £41,000 in used bank notes by conning his way into staff areas at three Co-op stores, including ones in Ilkley and Menston, to crack the safes.

Conrad Williams, who plundered his haul in just one day, was like a toddler with the sweet shop door open, his barrister told Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

Williams 23, wore a workman's outfit and carried a holdall to rifle safes at Co-op stores in Menston Main Street, Brook Street, Ilkley, and Bingley Road, Saltaire, on October 18.

He was arrested after an alert went out and he was challenged by a staff member at a store in King Edward's Drive, Harrogate. She tried to detain him but he made off.

Williams, 23, was on bail at the time for burgling £2,000 of electrical items from living quarters at the former Malsis School, near Glusburn, North Yorkshire, on June 28.

Prosecutor David McGonigal said Williams, of Beck Road, Skipton, posed as an employee of Integral UK to target the Co-op stores.

He fooled staff into thinking he was testing electronic equipment and was left alone with the safes.

He got away with £14,280 from the Menston branch, £16,100 from Ilkley and £11,000 from Saltaire.

Williams pleaded guilty to three offences of burglary and one of attempted burglary at the stores and to burgling the former Malsis School.

He was jailed for a total of two years and two months.

Mr McGonigal said the Co-op burglaries were "an unusual and effective method of stealing used cash."

"He must have some inside knowledge about the safes, presumably, and how to open them," he told the court.

Williams had previous convictions for shoplifting and burglary. He had served a prison sentence for tending counterfeit currency.

His barrister, Peter Hampton, said his client was a cocaine addict, deeply in debt, who was bound to be caught.

"He walks in showing his face on camera and leaves his fingerprints all over the place.

"The sweet shop had its doors open and he was in like a toddler getting his fill," Mr Hampton said.

Judge Colin Burn jailed Williams for six months for the Malsis School burglary and 20 months, to run consecutively, for the Co-op offences.