A BURGLAR who stole £30,000 from his former boss’s home has been sentenced to two years and four months.

Third strike burglar Shaun Roy Green, of no fixed address, stole the cash from a drawer in his former employer’s Menston home when he turned up at the property claiming he was owed money.

Alisha Kay, prosecuting at Bradford Crown Court, said Green, who is 43-years-old, arrived at the home around 1pm on August 30 wearing a balaclava and started kicking the conservatory door in an attempt to get inside the home.

When he failed to get in, Ms Kay said Green picked up a statue from the garden and used it to smash a conservatory window.

She said: “At 1.05pm the owner received a call from his home security system saying the alarm had gone off.

“The property was tidy apart from one drawer that was open and cash had been taken.”

Green handed himself in at a police station when he heard he was wanted and told officers during an interview he had gone to the home because he was trying to get money owed to him and claimed his former boss had not paid him.

He pleaded guilty to burglary at Bradford Magistrates’ Court, but the money was never recovered after someone else stole it from him.

The court heard this offence was Green’s third conviction for burglary.

The first was committed in August 2000 where he received a three year sentence, while the second took place in 2003 and he was sentenced to 30 months.

Andrew Dallas, defending Green, said his client had “settled down” between the second and third burglary, and had raised four children in the meantime.

He added: “This is a significant lapse when he was desperate for money.

“It was a bleak moment in his life.”

His honour Judge Jonathan Durham Hall, the Recorder of Bradford, sentenced Green to 876 days in prison.

He told him: “The outcome must be proper, fair and just to reflect what you have done.

“You targeted the home of your former employer.

“Whether you wanted to talk to him or not, I need not try the issue because you turned immediately to burgling the house and stole a substantial amount of money.

“It was clearly mean, nasty and targeted.

“Whatever your beef, argument or problem with the occupant, you don’t steal significant thousands of pounds.

“The loss is significant.”