A BURGLAR used money stolen from a 94-year-old grandmother to buy beer, despite knowing she was lying dead in her home.

Gavin Gage, 22, broke into the woman's house in Bute Court, Sunderland, on August 21 and found her body in the shower.

But instead of alerting emergency services, Gage took £95 he found in the property as well as her handbag.

The woman's son found the body the next day. He also realised there had been a break-in. The woman had last been seen by her granddaughter four days before.

A post-mortem examination revealed she died from natural causes.

Gage, who was the subject of an anti-social behaviour order (Asbo), went to the property on the day the body was discovered and told police he was responsible for the raid.

Alexia Zimbler, prosecuting, told Newcastle Crown Court: "There was a police officer on the premises and the defendant approached him and asked what he was doing there.

"The officer responded by asking why, at which point the defendant said: 'It's not worth looking for who done it, I am standing in front of you. Shewas like that when I went in'."

Gage, of no fixed address, admitted burglary.

He also admitted a burglary in June and breaching a combination order imposed for another raid.

Gage accepted breaching his Asbo after he was seen in a part of Sunderland he was forbidden from entering a few days before the raid.

Jamie Adams, in mitigation, said Gage had an unhappy upbringing that led to him drinking too much, and the court heard how Gage tried to take his life while in custody.

He was jailed for two years and five months.

l The Northern Echo has not named the woman at the request of the family