A MOTHER of two stole £70 from a pensioner's wallet, a court heard.

Victoria Elvin was admitted to the 85-year-old's house in Stanley after she said she was meeting another woman, whose name the victim recognised, Durham Crown Court was told yesterday.

Elvin took the wallet from inside the man's jacket and removed the cash. She was arrested two weeks later after her fingerprints were found on a glass she had been drinking from in the house.

Elvin, 25, of Robert Terrace, Shield Row, Stanley, who has seven previous convictions, mainly for dishonesty, admitted the theft.

Peter Schofield, mitigating, said Elvin had been drinking alcohol and taking tablets and had a clouded recollection of events. She was also upset that her eight-year-old daughter was going to live with her ex-partner in Spain.

Since the offence, Elvin, who also has a two-year-old child, had reduced her drinking and gained a food hygiene qualification.

Judge Richard Lowden, the Honorary Judicial Recorder of Durham, said stealing from the elderly and vulnerable was a despicable crime. He said she was saved from jail because of her dependant child.

Elvin was given a 12-month community rehabilitation order, ordered to serve 80 hours community punishment and ordered to repay the money she stole.