Ilkley jewel thief evades police posse by hiding in attic for 12 hours

Police have been criticised for failing to apprehend the thief, who was hidden in a space around 9ft-long above an office building which was scoured by officers with heat seeking equipment and sniffer dogs.

The events took place on May 28 when the alarm at Ashworth and Tennant jewellers in Ilkley was triggered.

The thief, whose identity is still unknown, is believed to have broken through the roof to force his way in to the premises at around 1am.

Knowing police were at the scene quickly, it is thought he then performed a Spiderman-like jaunt across the building and ploughed into the roof of a neighbouring construction company before hiding out until he could make his escape.

Police scoured the area until 7.30am before giving up the search but later, at around 12.30pm, office workers at Quarmby Construction heard him smashing his way out from the attic of their building and sliding down roof tiles to make his getaway.

Steve Tennant, who has run the jewellers at the Moors Shopping Centre for 18 years, told how he rushed to the shop at around 1.30am to find a swarm of police officers at the scene.

He said: "He must have only been in there between about 1am and 1.25am because 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."

Unbeknown to police he had burrowed his way into Quarmby's attic. Police searched the construction office but could find no sign of the culprit.

Neil Harrison, a 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.

"The space above us is about eight or nine foot big. 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. He could also have hid behind fibreglass which we were told could have stopped the heat-seeking equipment from pinpointing him.

"There are steel roof beams in parts of the loft area, which are safe for police to walk across but in other parts it's just suspended ceiling with no serious support - which is where he must have been.

"The police thought they were taking too big a risk to go along there."

Mr Harrison said that 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.

He 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.

"There was all sorts of commotion and he had broken through the roof, slid along the tiles on to the glass roof, just missing passers-by and got away."

It is believed the thief took around 6,000 worth of jewellery, as well as inflicting thousands of pounds worth of damage on the buildings.

Mr Harrison criticised police for not catching the criminal. He said: "It is quite an accessible loft space, you just have to remove some roof tiles and you could search around. 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?"

Mr Tennant added: "I am struggling to understand how they didn't find him with such a big presence but they tried everything they could. I think he is just a very clever bloke."

West Yorkshire Police confirmed they are investigating the burglary of the jewellers. A spokesman said: "It is estimated the damage caused at the buildings could be up to 10,000. Scenes of crime officers attended the scene and have carried out forensic examination.

"Officers conducted an area search later in the day on Friday after it was reported that a man was seen leaving the roof space of the shopping centre."