Addict burgled grandparents' Doncaster home while they were on holiday

Craig Hodson was discovered when the retired couple returned to their home on Chalmers Drive, Doncaster, on July 17, and found a panel in the back door had been kicked-in.

He said: "I'm homeless, I can't help it," prosecutor Louise Gallagher told Sheffield Crown Court, on Thursday.

His grandmother overheard Hodson asking for money, and planned to give him £20, but when she checked her purse, she found he had stolen £40.

After he left, they realised he had stolen his grandfather's £200 Omega watch, £240 in cash and a total of £1,450 of electrical goods including television sets and a stereo.

Hodson stole a £109 hair dryer from Boots, on Frenchgate, on July 22. He was identified via CCTV and later told officers he sold it for £10 to fund his drug habit.

The court heard he has 26 previous convictions for 40 offences, including two burglaries in 2013.

Nick Hayles, mitigating, said: "His grandmother is clearly very fond of him and she is very determined to try and support him, notwithstanding what he did on the last occasion.

"He has breached the trust they imposed upon him. He is miserable about what he has done because he knows his grandmother is his most keen carer.

"He tells me that he is drug-free and is on a prescription. The offending is taking place against a background of desperation.

“They are not casting him adrift. They see themselves as the principal line to get him back on the straight and narrow."

Hodson, 34, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to theft and burglary at Doncaster Magistrates' Court on July 23.

Recorder Taryn Turner told him: “You knew you weren’t welcome to visit their home when they weren’t there. They are getting on and they don’t want this trouble brought to their door. This was a mean, wicked and despicable offence.

“It’s time for you to pull your socks up and end your addiction.”

She sentenced Hodson to ten months in prison.

Read the latest cases from Sheffield Crown Court here.

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