Halifax chocolate cake burglar who targeted Calderdale cafe and tried to escape on a bus is jailed

A Calderdale criminal is beginning a 32-month jail sentence for a catalogue of offences including a raid on a Hebden Bridge cafe during which he stole a chocolate cake.
Joshua Hyde, of Daisy Street, Halifax, pleaded guilty to a variety of offences including house burglary, the break-in at the cafe, fraud and theft.Joshua Hyde, of Daisy Street, Halifax, pleaded guilty to a variety of offences including house burglary, the break-in at the cafe, fraud and theft.
Joshua Hyde, of Daisy Street, Halifax, pleaded guilty to a variety of offences including house burglary, the break-in at the cafe, fraud and theft.

Joshua Hyde got his just “desserts” at Bradford Crown Court after he admitted a string of crimes including two night-time house burglaries at occupied homes in Sowerby Bridge and Hebden Bridge.

While he was already on magistrates court bail for his offending over a six-day period in May the 24-year-old targeted the Little H cafe in St George’s Square in the early hours of August 7.

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Prosecutor Emma Downing said Hyde stole a safe, a quantity of cash, a tablet device, keys and the chocolate cake during the break-in, but he was arrested within an hour as he travelled away from Hebden Bridge on a bus.

Miss Downing said Hyde had been quickly identified by police from CCTV footage and the cake along with the other stolen property was recovered.

Only the safe was missing and Hyde later told police that he had thrown it in the canal.

Hyde’s crime spree in May began with a raid by him and an unknown accomplice on a block of detached garages in Sowerby Bridge.

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Miss Downing said the men got in by removing sections of roof from two garages.

CCTV footage showed the burglars driving away on a stolen Honda quad bike with a stolen Beta Rev-3 across the front of the handlebars.

Two hours later a woman resident was disturbed by her dog barking and she saw two males driving away again on the quad bike with a valuable bicycle, an air rifle and a quantity of tools.

“A rucksack was left at the scene which contained a cannabis grinder and a mobile phone,” said Miss Downing.

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“DNA recovered from the cannabis grinder was identified as that of the defendant.”

Two days later Hyde and an accomplice got into an occupied family home in Sowerby Bridge after a window had been left open because of the heatwave.

They stole property including bank cards and Hyde was subsequently caught on CCTV using one of them at the Asda in Halifax.

Miss Downing said four days later Hyde and his accomplice got into a couple’s home in Hebden Bridge and stole the keys to a Volkswagen Golf which was driven away and never recovered.

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Hyde, of Daisy Street, Halifax, pleaded guilty to a variety of offences including house burglary, the break-in at the cafe, fraud and theft.

Jailing him over a video link to HMP Leeds the Recorder of Bradford Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said he had to identify an overall sentence which was appropriate without offending the victims who were already traumatised by Hyde’s crimes.

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