AN ex-convict who trained as a gas fitter after his release and tricked his way into an elderly woman's home to steal her pension book, has been sent back to prison.

Steffan Przygodski dressed in a uniform and told the pensioner he had come to check her heating system when he called at her house in east Cleveland.

Przygodski, 28, spent more than an hour inside the property, in Fountains Close, Guisborough, before stealing the book and collecting the £120 pension the following day.

He was jailed for two years after admitting burglary and was also ordered to serve ten months remaining from a previous sentence for a string of break-ins when he was addicted to heroin.

Last night, police welcomed the sentence and promised their crackdown on bogus officials - helped by The Northern Echo's Doorstoppers campaign - would continue.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday that Przygodski, of High Street, Boosbeck, east Cleveland, won a place on a gas fitting course for rehabilitating offenders and kept out of trouble for six months.

His barrister, Richard Bennett, said he was tempted back into crime after bumping into a former friend, a drug dealer, who demanded £600 to pay off an old debt.

"He is extremely remorseful," said Mr Bennett. "It is not him feeling sorry for himself, it is feeling sorry for stooping so low and duping this lady."

After the case, a Cleveland Police spokeswoman said: "This should send a message to people who are tempted to prey on the elderly and vulnerable in society that the law will come down hard on them."

The Northern Echo launched Doorstoppers last year with the aim of increasing awareness of bogus official crimes. It has the support of police, trading standard officials and elderly care groups.