Cruel thief snatched cash after conning pensioner

Robert Lodge had been locked up on two previous occasions for similar offences of preying on the elderly with bogus stories about sponsorship, Ewan McLachlan prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

On October 20 last year after he had been doing unpaid work in the Altofts area of Wakefield under a community service order, he knocked on the door of the 89-year-old victim’s home when the pensioner and his wife were watching television.

The pensioner saw Lodge had a clipboard and a sheet with a couple of names already on it and when he said he had come about some sponsorship he invited him inside.

He told Lodge he would donate £5 if it was in a good cause but when he got out a bundle of cash from his pocket to look for a £5 note Lodge said; “There’s one” and snatched the whole lot from him before leaving.

Mr McLachlan said Lodge was arrested the following month and claimed the pensioner was mistaken when he was picked out in an identification procedure.

The court was told the community service was imposed for one public order offence relating to Lodge threatening another motorist at traffic lights and two offences of handling stolen goods relating to tools found on him on his then arrest.

Abdul Iqbal for Lodge said he accepted it was a mean offence against an elderly victim but stemmed from his need to fund drug taking following an ordeal last year.

That was when he was kidnapped following a dispute over a car and was held against his will for 17 hours during which he was threatened with guns and knives.

That led to him going back on to drugs. He accepted he went round asking for small sums that day to pay for them and when he saw the wad of cash produced, the temptation was too much for him.

Since his remand he had faced further threats from the case where he was the victim.

Lodge, 22, formerly of Ossett admitted burglary. Jailing him for a total of three years Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said his treatment of the pensioner was “wicked and despicable.”