A crooked carpet fitter who sneaked into a elderly woman's bedroom and stole expensive and sentimental rings from her dresser has been jailed.
Dad-of-two Stephen Leask had been trusted by the pensioner to lay carpets in her Low Fell home but, when her back was turned, he decided to steal from her. A court heard that the 31-year-old crept upstairs into her bedroom and helped himself to £8,000-worth of jewellery, which was in a box in her dressing table.
When the victim noticed the rings were missing a few days later, she informed the police and officers later got a call from Newcastle Jewellers shop, who reported that Leask had pawned the items to them for £900. The crook was arrested and initially denied any involvement in the theft but later confessed when he was shown CCTV from the pawn shop.
