A DRUG addict who tricked his way into a pensioner's home and stole her jewellery has been jailed for three years.

Phillip Corrie, 28, was told by the judge: "People of that age in failing health need to be protected and you used her aged and weakened self to carry out what was a mean offemce."

Corrie admitted theft and also pleaded guilty to a burglary, driving with excess alcohol, obstructing a police constable, escaping custody and possessing a class C drug.

The judge, Recorder Anton Lodge QC, imposed concurrent sentences for all the other charges.

Corrie was also banned from driving for two years and received 11 penalty points for driving without insurance and a licence, which he also admitted.

Teesside Crown Court was told yesterday that Corrie, who has a list of previous convictions, tricked his way into the 81-year-old woman's home in Thornaby on May 9 last year.

Corrie, of Whitely Road, Thornaby, knew the pensioner's grandson and said he was delivering a message for him to gain access to the house before stealing a quantity of jewellery.

A week later, he sneaked into the manager's office at the Asda supermarket at Portrack, Stockton, and stole a bunch of keys before taking a Rover from the car park and going on a joyride to a pub in Thornaby, said Harry Hatfield, prosecuting.

On June 18, after being told by his partner that she wanted to end their relationship and that she was changing the name of their daughter, Corrie went on a drinking binge and then decided to drive to her home.

Police stopped his car and when he was breathalysed he was almost twice the legal limit - 64 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The limit is 35 microgrammes.

After giving a breath test, Corrie asked if he could go to the toilet behind a nearby shed, but tried to flee from the police. He ran only 18 yards before he hurt his leg and was soon caught. Officers found cannabis in his pocket.

In mitigation, barrister Nigel Soppitt said Corrie had kicked his drugs habit and had, for the first time in a decade, stayed out of trouble and had become reconciled with his estranged father.

Mr Soppitt urged Recorder Lodge not to send Corrie to prison and said: "If he is given the slimmest chance of avoiding custody, he knows he would be extremely lucky."

But the judge told him: "If you had not committed the offence of theft against the 81-year-old woman, then you would not have been sent to prison by me, but I regard that offence as being very serious indeed.