A GANG of violent burglars who preyed on pensioners – and even stole the white stick from a blind woman – were last night starting jail sentences for their “vile and despicable crimes”.

Patrick Joseph Connor, 32, from Bishop Auckland, was jailed for six years when he appeared before Newcastle Crown Court. His 25-year-old cousin, of the same name, received a five-year sentence.

The cousins, and 23-year-old Martin Rooney, were linked to scores of distraction burglaries across the North-East and the Midlands.

They were finally cornered after forensic experts recovered DNA from a half-eaten burger left in a car abandoned during a police chase.

Prosecuting barrister Mark Giuliani said the two men were part of a gang targeting elderly people “to commit distraction burglaries in a most vile and despicable manner”.

He said: “The gang, who belong to a travelling family, posed as water company engineers or pretended to be seeking garden work to gain access to homes belonging to the elderly.”

If a young person answered they would carry on knocking and “would effectively just enter” when an elderly person came to the door.

Mr Giuliani said: “One of them would make up a story of a stop cock that needed checking or such like, while the other would enter the premises and raid it for cash or jewellery.” One of the gang’s victims was a deaf and blind 92-year-old woman, but that did not prevent Connor Sr from bursting into her home, stealing her money and her white walking stick.

Police finally caught up with the gang thanks to a BT engineer who saw a suspiciouslooking BMW convertible outside a house in Castleside, near Consett. The burglars were inside a house after having told the 74-year-old owner that they needed to check a burst water main.

Luckily for police, the quickthinking BT engineer wrote down the car registration.

Mr Giuliani said that two days later, the gang struck at the homes of three elderly people in Telford, Shropshire.

On April 24, the 92-year-old blind woman was targeted in Leicestershire.

When the BMW was spotted in Birmingham, police gave chase and recovered the remains of a Burger King meal which led to the DNA breakthrough.

At an earlier hearing in Durham Crown Court, the cousins pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit house burglaries in April last year.

Connor Sr also admitted robbing the 92-year-old. The court was told Connor Sr, who uses several aliases, is serving a jail sentence of three years and nine months for robbing an 89-year-old woman in Scotland, in February 2008. In that incident the frail and immobile victim put up a struggle.

She was forced into a chair and shaken violently.

Andrew Finlay QC, mitigating for Connor Sr, said his addiction to heroin was the driving force behind the crimes.

Mr Finlay said: “He has since steered clear of drugs and having the opportunity to reflect, is thoroughly ashamed, disgusted and remorseful about what he has done.”

David Callan, mitigating for Connor Jr, said the father-ofthree, from Wigan, in Greater Manchester, had admitted the conspiracy on the basis that he had been seen behaving suspiciously at four addresses.

Mr Callan said: “He realises that he has done as much damage to his children as he has to the victims in this case.”

Passing sentence, Judge Tony Lancaster told Connor Sr of the blind woman’s robbery: “It must have been obvious to you when you pushed your way into her premises and forced her into a chair she was blind.

“She must have been terrified by what was happening to her.

“A particularly unpleasant part of the crime was that, knowing she was blind, you took away her walking stick, which she obviously needed for her safety and mobility.”

At a previous hearing, Rooney, 23, of Market Harborough, in Leicestershrire, admitted two attempted burglaries.

He was sentenced to 16 months for each offence, to run concurrently. A charge of conspiracy was left to lie on file.

Detective Inspector Dave Wolfe, of Operation Bombay – a squad set up to tackle travelling criminals preying on elderly people – was one of nine officers commended by the judge for the complicated and protracted investigation, spanning 11 police force areas.

DI Wolfe said: “We are happy to see them get lengthy custodial sentences. At the end of the day the judge can only convict them on the evidence presented to him.

“There is an element of disappointment that police suspect the offending took place over a period of a number of years, but the difficulty is in obtaining evidence from elderly and vulnerable people.”