A thief has been jailed for 12 months for stripping lead from the roof of a church and school.

Daniel Patchett caused damage to Eastburn Methodist Church costing £8,000 to repair, Bradford Crown Court heard on Friday.

Worshippers arrived at the church on September 8 to find the building leaking after lead had been plundered from the roof and from around the windows.

Patchett, formerly of Sheldrake Avenue in Lower Grange, Bradford, was traced after he left his fingerprints on a drainpipe at the church, prosecutor Jonathan Sharp said.

He was not apprehended until October 13, when he was caught red-handed stealing lead from the roof of Steeton Primary School.

He attacked the building after midnight, avoiding the anti-vandal paint and causing damage costing £2,500 to repair, Mr Sharp told the court.

Patchett pleaded guilty to two offences of theft at an earlier court hearing.

His barrister, Shufqat Khan, said Patchett was homeless at the time and in desperate need of basic living requirements. He had led a transitory and chaotic lifestyle, surviving hand-to-mouth.

He now had a settled address and was actively seeking employment.

Judge John Potter said they were “highly anti-social” offences undermining the community as a whole, and directly affecting both worshippers and schoolchildren.

In November last year, Patchett was locked up for eight months for burgling two unoccupied houses in Bradford.

He was caught on hidden cameras breaking into a police ‘capture house’, and seen manhandling a sink unit from the property and trying to remove a boiler.