Sarah Burke, from Wood End, who has a problem with drink and drugs, was jailed on her 48th birthday
A crack addict who burgled a pensioner’s home in the middle of the night to get money for drugs was caught after a CCTV camera captured her carrying his trousers.
Less than an hour earlier Sarah Burke, from Coventry, had beaten up another old man after barging into his home and demanding money for a taxi.
And on her 48th birthday Burke, of Deedmore Road, Wood End, was jailed for three years by a judge at Warwick Crown Court after pleading guilty to burglary and assault.
Prosecutor John Brotherton said that shortly before 2am an 89-year-old man was woken by a knock at the front door of his home in Binswood Close, Wood End.
When he opened the door, Burke barged in, demanding: “I need some money for a taxi.”
When he said he didn’t have any, Burke punched him in the face before hitting him repeatedly with a three-foot piece of wood.
His cries for help were heard by neighbours who banged on the wall and shouted they were calling the police but, even then, Burke continued to hit him in the doorway of his home.
When they shouted at her again, she finally stopped and ran off.
About an hour later a 74-year-old man, whose bed was in the downstairs front room of his home in Binton Road, Wood End, was asleep, having forgotten to lock the front door.
He woke to find his trousers, with his wallet containing his Post Office card and about £250 in cash, had been taken, together with two pouches of tobacco from a drawer in the room.
When police checked a CCTV camera at a nearby property it showed Burke, whose previous convictions included an attempted robbery in 2008, walking past with a pair of trousers folded over her arm.
When she was arrested, having slept rough on a patch of wasteland, she said that the previous night she had had four cans of strong lager and some crack cocaine.
She claimed that she had had money from her first victim before, but that when she went to ask him for some, it was he who had started swinging out at her with the wood.
But she admitted then going to the other address and taking the trousers, adding that she had used most of the money to buy crack cocaine and had also tried to use the Post Office card.
Jailing Burke, Recorder Barry Berlin told her: “You are 48 years of age today; and what a birthday.
“It is clear you have serious problems with drink and with illegal substances.
“But it is also clear that you are a risk of serious harm to vulnerable members of the public when you are taking drink and illegal substances, and these offences illustrate that harm.”
“You knew [the first victim] was vulnerable, and you knew where he lived, and you targeted him because he was vulnerable.
“You then went to a nearby property, the home of another vulnerable adult. He was asleep, and you helped yourself to his money, cards and even his trousers; in truth, anything you could get your thieving hands on.
“You had no conscience, and your craving for liquor and drugs got you to where you now are on your birthday.”
Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 3:47 pm