A BURGLAR who climbed down a long rope to get into a Burnley takeaway in a ‘sophisticated’ operation has been spared jail for now.

Burnley Crown Court heard ‘family man’ Neil Howson, 49, got onto the roof of the Subway sandwich shop in St James’s Street before climbing down a nylon rope he had dropped inside the premises.

A total of £4,400 was stolen from the shop’s safe.

But the court heard labourer Howson had been recruited to take part in the burglary because he had a rope and that he had been paid £500 for his involvement.

Recorder Anthony Cross QC deferred sentencing for six months, saying he wanted to see if the defendant could ‘stay out of trouble’.

The court was told that on May 27 last year Subway employee Bracken Harter put the takings in the shop’s safe, set the alarm and locked the premises before leaving.

Another employee David Griffiths arrived the next morning at 7am to find the shop had been broken into and the money taken.

The alarm had not been set off and CCTV had not recorded any activity overnight, but there was no evidence of either system being tampered with, the court heard.

Howson, of Wycoller Avenue, Burnley, was caught after his DNA was found on the rope and his footprint was found inside the shop’s kitchen.

He pleaded guilty to burglary on March 24.

The court heard the defendant had a number of convictions for burglary and theft although the number of offences had reduced in recent years.

In mitigation Phillip Boyd said there had been ‘some degree of sophistication’ but it could not be attributed to his client.

Referring to Howson, he said: “He is a labourer who has been employed by the same man for 17 years.

"He is a hard-working 49-year-old family man.”

Mr Boyd said his client could earn up to £360 a week during the summer and that he was willing to pay compensation for his crime.

Deferring sentence until November 1, Recorder Cross said: “I’m going to defer sentence for six months because I want to test your resolve to stay out of trouble and earn money to pay compensation.

“I will be impressed if you can raise some money. You have got to buckle down.”