Masked raider who terrorised victim, 98, caged for nine years

Thomas Reynolds and two other unidentified accomplices - all hooded - climbed onto a low wall to reach the flat garage roof and removed the first floor bathroom window to get into the property in Villiers Avenue, Bilston, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Miss Jabeen Aktar, prosecuting, said: "The elderly lady was washing dishes when one of the offenders walked into the kitchen and took the plate from her. She was then frog marched throughout the house with the defendants asking 'where's the money?'

"They went from room to room, making untidy searches of each of them.

"They took around £75 cash and credit cards together with photos of her children when they were young."

The raiders even prised wood panelling off the fireplace in a fruitless search for more money before needlessly caused over £2,000 worth of damage by squirted bleach around the sitting room, living room, hall and landing before they fled on February 4, it was said.

Blood found on tiles in the bathroom was later forensically linked to 30-year-old father of four Reynolds who had struck with other hooded raiders nine days earlier, stealing £12,000 worth of gold and jewellery from a house in Mount Road, Penn while the female occupant and her 19-year-old daughter sat downstairs, the court was told.

Miss Aktar revealed: "They were sitting in the living room shortly after returning home when they heard noises from the bedroom directly above them." They went to investigate but fled after seeing a man at the top of the stairs holding a jewellery box , continued the prosecutor who added that up to five men were later seen running from the address. The victim was uninjured but was said to have 'feared for her life' during the incident.

A screw driver left lying on a bed had the fingerprints that were identified as those of Reynolds who was also linked to a distraction burglary in Warrington during which an 83-year-old woman had £42 cash stolen on September 26 2003. His prints were discovered on the top of a tin.

Mr Sukhdev Garcha, defending, stressed that none of the victims had been subjected to violence but admitted: "He has committed horrendous offences while under the influence of drugs and appreciates the impact on the victims."

Reynolds, from Mount Pleasant, Bilston, who has a string of previous convictions committed throughout England, pleaded guilty to the three burglaries and was sent to prison by Judge Nicholas Webb who told him: "The menace and fear you and your associates must have conveyed can be readily appreciated by all of us. These burglaries were on the cusp of robbery. Men wearing balaclavas are very intimidating."