A 25-YEAR-OLD man who burgled a school while on an electronic curfew tag has been spared an immediate prison sentence.

Aaron Butterfield broke a window at Oakbank School in Oakworth Road, Keighley, and stole a radar gun used for athletics training.

He fled, dropping the £400 gun, when a staff member turned up, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Butterfield, of Hainworth Wood Road, Keighley, pleaded guilty to burgling the school on the morning of July 5 last year.

He was on police bail at the time for stealing a phone from his retired neighbour on June 8.

Prosecutor Abdul Shakoor said Butterfield had 13 previous convictions, dating from when he was a youth, for 23 offences.

His record included robbery, assault, burglary and theft.

Butterfield's barrister, Anne-Marie Hutton, said it was "opportunistic and foolish" offending after he had kept out of trouble for more than two years.

It had lost him his job in a stone mason's yard and he had been on the monitored curfew since last June.

Judge David Hatton QC told Butterfield he had "an appalling list of criminal convictions" but he gave him credit pleading guilty to the offences, ridding himself of a drug problem and being determined to find another job.

He sentenced him to ten months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a probation service rehabilitation activity requirement and 120 hours of unpaid work.