Drugs duo jailed for robbing 84-year-old man as he arrived home from night out

The 84-year-old victim was spotted as he was using his walking sticks to return to the block of flats where he lived in Wakefield city centre at around midnight.

As he went to put his key in the building entrance he was pushed from behind and forced into the foyer by Stephen Padley and Anne Marie Liversedge, Alisha Kaye prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court.

He tried to resist but he was restrained and his pockets emptied by the duo who then forced him to take the lift to his flat where they barged in after him.

The pair searched the property and stole items including mobile phones, cameras and 350 in cash. They only left after their victim pretended to have chest pains.

Both were later arrested after trying to sell some of the items and identified on CCTV in the foyer at the pensioner's building.

Padley said he intended to spend the cash on crack cocaine and Liversedge also said it was intended for drugs.

The victim did not suffer any physical injuries but is now scared to go out, said Miss Kaye.

Padley, 27, of Arundel Close, Wakefield, was jailed for five years and Liversedge, 31, of Ings Beck Mews, Wakefield, was jailed for 33 months after each admitted robbery. Sentencing them, Judge James Goss QC said it was a bad offence where they had targeted a vulnerable victim at night.

He might not have suffered physically but he had been robbed of his self-confidence and "will probably never recover for the rest of his life from what you did to him that night".

Rob Casey for Padley said it was an opportunistic offence after he had taken some crack cocaine and tablets which meant he remembered little about it.

He was now addressing his drug problem in prison having started on methadone.

John Wilkinson for Liversedge said she had also taken tablets earlier that day and was ashamed of what she had done.