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Leeds burglar is jailed
A burglar has been jailed for almost two-and-a-half-years after becoming the latest criminal to be snared by a police capture house in Leeds.
Kyle Rainey, 26, of Alderton Heights, Moortown, broke into one of North West Leeds Division's hi-tech houses in Woodhouse.
He didn't have a clue it was rigged with hidden cameras and dye-spraying devices to help police catch burglars red-handed.
A laptop computer and flat-screen television were stolen in the break-in in the early hours of June 12.
Inquiries led officers to Rainey's address, where the stolen property was recovered along with items stolen from another burglary in Woodhouse the same night.
Rainey admitted both burglaries when he appeared at Leeds Crown Court and was sentenced to 876 days in prison.
Det Insp Dave Cowley, of North West Leeds Division, said: "Yet again our capture houses have proved their worth in providing irrefutable evidence that has seen a burglar taken off the streets and put behind bars in a very short space of time.
"Burglars like Rainey spread misery in our communities not just by stealing possessions that people have worked hard to own but by invading people's homes and making them feel unsafe.
"Burglary remains one of our top priorities and the use of capture houses, alongside a range of other tactics, is helping us to reduce the level of burglary.
"We will continue to set up capture houses across the Division as part
of our ongoing efforts to catch burglars and reduce this type of crime."
The Division's capture bikes have also been enjoying continued success with five people arrested in connection with six separate bike thefts throughout June.
The bikes are being deployed at bicycle theft hot-spots across the Division, primarily the universities' campuses.
Four men, aged 17 to 35, have been convicted of offences including theft, handling stolen goods and cultivation of cannabis as a result of investigations prompted by the theft of capture bikes in June.
The case of a 42-year-old man charged with the theft of a capture bike is currently ongoing at court.
The use of the capture bikes has seen a significant drop in the number of bike theft offences on the campuses.
Security
The campuses of the University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University were previously identified as being the hardest hit areas for bike theft with more than a quarter of the 530 bicycles stolen in the Division over the 12 months up to March this year being taken from in and around these sites.
As part of work to tackle the problem, the universities put up funding to provide the police with the new capture bikes, which are being deployed throughout the sites.
The Kirkstall branch of Halfords and Chapel Allerton branch of Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative are also supporting the initiative.
Campus security teams are working closely with officers and using their own CCTV systems to help police identify the thieves who target the bikes.
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Weather for Leeds
Friday 25 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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