Thief escapes police by hiding in attic 12 hours

Police came in for criticism for failing to catch the thief, who was hidden in a space about 9ft long above an office building that was searched by officers with heat seeking equipment and sniffer dogs.

The alarm at Ashworth and Tennant jewellers in Ilkley was triggered when the crook is thought to have smashed through the roof to force his way in to the premises at about 1am.

Knowing police were there, it is thought he then clambered across the building and ploughed into the roof of a neighbouring construction company, hiding there until he could escape.

Police scoured the area for six hours but at 12.30pm, stunned office workers at Quarmby Construction heard the man smashing his way out from the attic of their building to make his getaway.

Steve Tennant, who has run the jewellers at the Moors Shopping Centre for 18 years, said he rushed to the shop at about 1.30am to find police at the scene.

The 56-year-old said: "By the time we got there we couldn't see any sign of him.

"He must have realised he wasn't getting away. The police called out a helicopter and there was a cherry picker to get them up on to the roof but it was like he had disappeared."

He had burrowed his way into Quarmby's attic.

Neil Harrison, a 36-year-old building estimator at the company, said: "There were about 10 police officers, as well as fire officers, looking around the space above our office to try and find this guy. There were police dogs running around and the fire service had heat seeking equipment to uncover him.

"There was plenty of space, nooks and crannies, for him to hide in. I think he might have hid behind a water tank up there."

When officers gave up their search at 7.30am employees sealed the hole the thief had made to enter – trapping him in the loft space.

Mr Harrison said: "Then I went to the toilet and heard some suspicious noises but didn't think anything of it.

"We began to smell cigarette smoke and thought we'd better call the police. The next thing we knew there was a crashing noise and we heard something on the roof again.

After the man broke through the roof, staff gave chase but the man escaped with jewellery worth 6,000.

Mr Harrison said: "The police just told us they had a good look around up there and couldn't find anybody. The emphasis wasn't on the 'good', was it?"