Dozing Leeds burglar 'just wanted somewhere to sleep' after prison release

Mohammed Azam was found having 40 winks in the outhouse of one home on Buckstone Drive in Leeds, hours after he was picked up by a doorbell camera on nearby Buckstone Close trying to break in.

Azam, who turned 23 this week, admitted a charge of attempted dwelling burglary and burglary of a non-dwelling.

Representing himself, and appearing at Leeds Crown Court via video link from custody, he said: “I had just been released from prison. I did commit them [the burglary offences] but I had on intention to steal really.

“I was just trying to find somewhere to sleep. I did not really want to go in there. My intention was to follow my licence but I did not have any accomodation.”

The court heard that Azam had been jailed on December 13 at Bradford Crown Court for a number of offences, including assaults on emergency workers.

However, he was released immediately due to time served.

On the morning of December 15, a resident on Buckstone Close received a notification shortly after 7am about movement detected on her doorbell camera.

The footage showed a male in her garden wearing a face mask and hoodie. He was trying to open the greenhouse door.

She then went to the window and saw him leaving the garden. She noticed a window to the house that had been left ajar was now wide open, although there was no suggestion the property had been entered.

The police were called and Azam was forensically linked to the scene.

But shortly before midday, a shocked resident found him asleep in the outhouse of her home on nearby Buckstone Drive.

She phoned the police and challenged Azam, who was using the woman’s duvet cover to keep warm. He told her he was homeless.

He had also taken and eaten chicken wings from a fridge in the outhouse. He left the property with the duvet cover which he was still in possession of when police arrested him walking along Scott Hall Road later that day.

Azam, of Queens Road, Halifax, has 16 previous convictions for 30 offences, including burglary, robberies and theft.

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Judge Anesh Pema warned Azam: “You are going to spend decades of you life going in an out of prison.

“The only thing that is going to happen is that the sentences will get longer and longer if you fail to do what you should.”

He gave him a two-year community order and 30 rehabilitation days, with an aim to help him find accomodation.