A GANG of travelling burglars who broke into a York home in the middle of the night have been sentenced.

Joel Hutchinson, 26, Lee Cunningham, 23, and Leroy Killoran, 25, had crept into a house in Hunters Way, Dringhouses, at about midnight on July 20 last year, while the three male occupants of the house were sleeping. They stole a laptop and case, worth about £650.

In the early hours of the following morning, police later pulled over the trio, who were returning to Leeds in a rented Vauxhall Vectra, in the Cross Gates area of the city, after becoming suspicious, York Crown Court heard yesterday.

Officers searching the rented car then found the stolen laptop, concealed under the passenger seat, as well as a knife and mole grips – a tool often used in burglaries, the court heard.

Police, using phone tracking systems, had placed Hutchinson in the area of Hunters Way earlier that day.

“He was casing the joint, so to speak,” said Recorder Mark Cran QC.

Hutchinson, of Holborn Gardens, Leeds, Cunningham, of Ilbert Avenue, Bradford, and Killoran, of Arlington Road, Leeds, were arrested and each pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary at a court hearing earlier this year.

Sentencing the three men, Recorder Cran described Hutchinson as the “primary mover” of the operation.

Addressing all three, he said: “This was a night-time burglary in a house with residents at home upstairs. This places a serious aggravating feature on the case.”

Hutchinson, who has committed three burglaries in his nine-year criminal career, was jailed for 876 days.

Cunningham, who has previous offences for burglary, robbery and dangerous driving, was jailed for nine months.

Killoran was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.