A MAN with a history of stealing from people giving him hospitality walked off with a former girlfriend’s purse and contents.

David Kenneth Gash was said to have had a volatile four year "on/off" relationship with the woman, who suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy.

Durham Crown Court heard she is considered "vulnerable" and has a care link alarm at her Ferryhill home.

Jim Withyman, prosecuting, said Gash knocked at her back door on February 17, at 7pm, but she refused to let him in.

He persisted and said he needed to use the toilet, so she finally relented.

When Gash emerged from the toilet he grabbed her handbag containing various credit cards and £30 cash and left.

The frightened woman rang police and officers found the bag hanging on the back door, minus the purse and its contents.

Gash was picked out on cctv in the area getting on a bus, while he was also seen counting money.

When arrested next day he told police he had been nowhere near Ferryhill the previous day.

The 24-year-old, of Moorside, Spennymoor, who has been in custody since February 18, denied a charge of robbery at a previous hearing, but admitted theft, which was accepted by the prosecution.

The court was told that his record includes several previous offences of theft, one against the same woman, which again involved him taking money. He has also stolen jewellery and a games console from people who had allowed him to stay at their home.

Mr Withyman said he had received a community order only a fortnight before the latest offence, for theft of a money box and a mobile phone from the homes of people he knew.

Andrew Petterson, mitigating, said over the course of a 15-month period up to this January the woman he took the purse from made several allegations against him, which police had investigated and dismissed.

Jailing him for a total of three years and six months, Judge Peter Kelson told Gash his latest offence was, "grotesque" given the vulnerability of the victim.

Gash, who was led to the cells protesting against the length of sentence, was also made subject of an indefinite restraining order to keep away from the woman and avoid trying to contact her.