Lowlife burglar 'sorry' after break-in at 90-year-old's home
A burglar returned to the scene of the crime four hours later to apologise to the terrified 90-year-old victim, a judge heard.
The woman was asleep when Gabriel Scoban broke a window in the back door and slipped into her Langley home but she woke when he stepped into her bedroom at 3am on September 17, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
“She saw the defendant in the doorway, screamed, got out of her bed, grabbed hold of her walking stick and told him to leave,” said Ms Caroline Harris, prosecuting.
“She called police and was still on the phone when the intruder returned and her scream was heard by those at the other end of the line.”
It put the 29-year-old Romanian immigrant to flight and he escaped with just a couple of pounds, a packet of cigarettes, a lighter and the keys to the bungalow.
But Scoban came back at 7am, knocked on the kitchen window with the keys which he then used to open the door before dropping them on the floor and saying ‘sorry’ before running off again, said Ms Harris.
The victim, who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and has a pacemaker, and her granddaughter, who had rushed to her side as soon as she heard of the break in, both saw the man and called police again.
He was soon spotted by officers and arrested.
The victim is now on anti-depressants as she struggles to overcome the shock of the break-in and Mr Jasvir Mann, defending, conceded: “Being woken by a stranger walking into your bedroom while you are asleep is the stuff of nightmares for every occupant.
"The defendant was at the end of his tether.
"He was sleeping rough, hungry and homeless. In his desperation he did not think things through.”
Scoban, of no fixed address and without previous convictions in the UK, admitted burglary and was jailed for ten months by Judge Simon Ward who told him: “You terrified a vulnerable 90-year-old woman. This was the behaviour of a low life.”
