A “long in the tooth” criminal with a history of targeting the elderly has been jailed again for his involvement in a distraction burglary.

David Gascoigne, from Hartlepool, and an unknown co-accused committed the offence at the home of a man classed as “vulnerable” who lives at the targeted property with his mother, in her 90s.

Newcastle Crown Court heard that while one of the pair engaged the householder in discussion at the door, the accomplice entered the man's home, in Kent Street, Jarrow, to rummage around and take items, in mid-afternoon on August 20, 2020.

Sixty-four-year-old Gascoigne, of Pine Grove, finally went on trial for the burglary at Newcastle Crown Court last week, claiming he was not involved in the crime, but the jury returned a guilty verdict on Friday afternoon (July 21).

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Following the verdict, Kate Barnes, representing Gascoigne, said she could not argue with the prosecution view that the offence falls into the most serious bracket, given that the householder was in the property when the crime was perpetrated.

“Whether the planning was his and the targeting was down to this defendant or the other person involved, if not the offending, is not clear.

“But it has to be accepted that the householder was ‘vulnerable’.”

She said the defendant, himself, is also in ill-health, suffering with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and has undergone three-months intensive therapy at home, with steroids to try to control the condition.

“It’s some time since he served a sentence and, in that time, his health has deteriorated.

“The reason he has not offended since 2017, for dissimilar offences, was because he was caring for his family.

“He is now ‘long in the tooth’ to be serving custodial sentences and he plans to make sure this is the last one he serves,” added Miss Barnes.

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Recorder David Brooke KC, who presided over the trial, told Gascoigne: “You have been convicted of a serious offence of burglary, committed in 2020.

“It was a mean offence and you are a man with a history of preying on vulnerable older people.

“You went there with another man and it does seem that it was targeting of a vulnerable victim.

“If ever there was a vulnerable victim it was this man, targeting him in his own home where he lives with his own mother, in her 90s.

“You should be ashamed of yourself.

“Whether you were the ‘big man’ that was described going in or the other person distracting him doesn’t matter.

“You have a long history of previous offences going back a long way, depressingly, to 1975 when you were a juvenile.

“Over the years you have committed various dishonesty.”

Recorder Brooke pinpointed offences of fraud involving older people in 2011, 2013 and 2014, for which Gascoigne received sentences varying between 30 months and three years.

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Imposing a 30-month sentence for the burglary, Recorder Brooke told the defendant: “It’s nearly ten years since that spate of offending and you are now 64 and not in the best of health.

“I accept the sentence will have an impact.”

He added that but for the state of his health, the sentence would have been one of three years.