'Despicable' pair stole rings from dying woman: Burglars Jordan Holbrook and Nicholas Groom jailed at Hull Crown Court
TWO burglars targeted a dying woman, stealing her rings worth more than £5,000 just weeks before she died.
Jordan Holbrook, 19, and Nicholas Groom, 21, distracted vulnerable people in their homes to steal money and property.
Judge Mark Bury described their actions as "despicable" as he locked them up.
Hull Crown Court heard the pair went to the home of John and Eileen Blyth in Fifth Avenue, Bridlington, in August and offered to carry out some guttering and painting work over four days.
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They waited until Mr Blyth left to collect some shopping before they burgled the property while his cancer-stricken wife was in bed.
They stole four rings, worth more than £5,000 and of great sentimental value, bank cards and identity documents.
The rings were taken to a pawn shop and have never been recovered.
Mrs Blyth died five weeks later from breast cancer. Before her death, she gave a statement to the police telling them how she had seen the pair in her home and they claimed they were getting a glass of water.
Judge Bury told them: "Mr Blyth trusted you to work at his home while he went shopping, leaving his terminally ill wife in bed. You repaid that trust by stealing from him."
He said the rings were to have been passed on to family members but had been melted down for £140.
The judge said: "There's no evidence you knew her precise illness but it must have been apparent she was not a well lady.
"Put yourselves in Mr Blyth's position, looking after his terminally-ill wife in her last days and he has to put up with this trauma of having her rings stolen from him. It is outrageous behaviour."
Between August 28 and August 31, the pair also targeted a 100-year-old woman in Eighth Avenue, Bridlington.
They went to her home three times, asking for money, to use the toilet and for a drink.
While inside her house, they stole from her handbag.
The pair, both of no fixed address, were arrested on August 31 and blamed the crimes on each other.
However, they both pleaded guilty to two burglaries at Hull Crown Court.
Serial burglar Groom, who had only been released four weeks previously from a previous burglary sentence for targeting a pensioner and was on licence, was jailed for four years and three months.
Holbrook was locked up for three years and two months.
Comments
by stiffler
Sunday, February 10 2013, 1:04AM
“cut their thieving f****** hands off the scum. or send them to afganistan don't need scum bags here.”
by taxidoors
Saturday, January 26 2013, 10:52PM
“one day they will rob the wrong house and karma will hit them hard”
by Hunnyb_2252
Tuesday, January 22 2013, 8:39AM
“Total scum of the earth preying on the terminally ill, why these two didn't get a longer sentence is beyond me. I understand they are both homeless? Well, they won't have to worry about board and lodgings for a while will they?”
by funky15
Saturday, January 19 2013, 12:53AM
“dirty piece of scum!”
by hollydog2
Friday, January 18 2013, 9:39PM
“Why do we tollerate Vermin like this on our streets, If only we had fore sight we could have had them drowned at birth”
by ArthurHunt
Friday, January 18 2013, 6:20PM
“Totally agree with bringing back the birch - but the chances of allowing the people real democracy is NIL.
The political elite who have sold us out to the EU has seen to that. It's time for a revolution - everyone is fed up with the state we're in but daren't speak out.
We want our country back and our values enforced, not those idealistic dreams from the Student Bars of the 1970s and 1980s - those are the sneering values of an out of touch elite who are always on the side of low life and scum and these overgrown student morons became "New Labour".....
And so the demise of a great country continues....”
by beverleybard
Friday, January 18 2013, 5:38PM
“Seems scum like this will do anything for money - that is apart from doing meaningful work! The lowest of the low.”
by Worker111
Friday, January 18 2013, 4:06PM
“5 years hard labour and 20 strokes of the birch when they are released.”
by JayOnly
Friday, January 18 2013, 3:41PM
“There might come a time when people decide enough is enough by taking matters into their own hands and meeting out vigilante justice. Swing 'em from a lamppost...just be sure they're the right ones.”
by c1jnt
Friday, January 18 2013, 1:34PM
“i was in court again yesterday accused of beating up a burglar its been ajourned once again because the scumbag is in jail for breaching a suspended sentence so now he has to be brought from jail to give evidence in person,this trial has been going on for a year now at what cost to the tax payer i cant imagine the only evidence is his word that it was me ive got two law abiding citizens as wittnesses to testify i was elsewhere at the time,the CPS said hes got rights apparently.”