A “career burglar” has been jailed for two-and-a-half years after he brazenly walked into the private flat above a Brighouse pub and stole more than £360 in cash from an office.

Bradford Crown Court heard today (Wednesday) how Patrick Reilly, 55, was wearing a workman’s high-visibility jacket in an effort to blend in before he went upstairs through a “staff only” door and stole the cash.

The theft only came to light the next day when the manager of The Barge pub accessed the safe and noticed that money was missing.

When she checked the CCTV Reilly, of Northrop Close, Girlington, Bradford, was caught on camera as he went through various doors at the pub although the footage did not show him taking the money.

Reilly, who had 52 convictions for 95 offences between 1986 and this year, was arrested and charged after a police officer identified him from the CCTV.

He initially denied the burglary charge, but he eventually pleaded guilty to the offence at a previous crown court hearing.

Reilly’s last conviction for house burglary was back in 2016, but Recorder Mark McKone KC noted that following his first house burglary in 1986 the defendant had effectively been “a career burglar”.

Reilly’s repeat offending meant he was sentenced today as a so-called “three strikes” burglar and the judge reduced his prison sentence from the minimum of three years to take account of his guilty plea.

“I accept this started off as a burglary of a non-dwelling, but it developed into a house burglary when you went upstairs,” said the judge.

“Fortunately the complainant did not see this burglary taking place and there was no confrontation.”

The judge said Reilly had been dressed in a high-visibility jacket presumably to give the impression that he was a workman there for a legitimate purpose if anyone saw him.

Barrister Nicholas Leadbeater, for Reilly, said his client had long-standing issues with drug and alcohol addiction.

He said Reilly believed he had overcome the addictions three years ago when he got himself clean, but during a six-month period his father and brother passed away and his sister died in “particularly horrific circumstances in a house fire”.

Mr Leadbeater said Reilly relapsed into using alcohol and heroin and he was stealing pay for his addictions.

While on remand at HMP Leeds Reilly had been attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and was on a drug-free wing.

Recorder McKone accepted that Reilly had been making progress with his addictions, but that had been set back by the traumatic events in his life particularly the deaths of family members.

But the judge warned Reilly that if he returned to his career of house burglary a much longer prison sentence would be passed next time.