A jailbird who spent 16 of the last 18 years behind bars has been locked up yet again for targeting elderly people in a string of burglaries.
At just 33, Dean Bennett already had 30 convictions for burglary and a burglary conspiracy on his record.
Today the institutionalised criminal was jailed for seven years.
He launched his latest crime spree months after release from an eight-year jail term for 20 burglaries.
He stole money meant for bills, holidays and housekeeping from people in their 80s over a 12-day period, Teesside Crown Court heard.
He targeted vulnerable victims, conning or barging his way into their homes with the promise of cigarettes or whiskey.
He befriended an 83-year-old man in a pub and offered to sell him cigarettes on April 9, said prosecutor David Crook.
He went to the elderly man’s home in Norton Grange, Stockton and helped himself to £450 cash, as well as £150 handed over to him for cigarettes.
The elderly man later said he felt upset and embarrassed and lost pride and the confidence to go out for a pint with friends.
Bennett also offered cigarettes to the man’s friend, took cash and never delivered the goods.
He went uninvited into the home of a retired couple aged 81 and 82 in Park End, Middlesbrough, offering cigarettes and whiskey on April 17.
After a confusing “subterfuge”, they gave him £555, he left and never returned.
He went to an 83-year-old woman’s home in Hemlington, Middlesbrough on April 19 after offering her friend cigarettes in a shop.
He snatched her handbag in her kitchen, took £95 and made off.
The next day he knocked on the door of a deaf 83-year-old woman with severe arthritis in Pallister Park, Middlesbrough.
When she answered the door he pushed her against a wall and stole her handbag containing £700 and gold rings, leaving her crying, shocked and distressed.
The 83-year-old woman later said in a statement: “I could hardly breathe. I was so frightened I started to get pains in my chest.”
He also stole a £2,000 Lexus car by taking it for a test drive and not returning it after answering a sales ad on March 29.
Since the offences the victims said they lost trust and felt wary of people coming to their homes.
Bennett, of Peaton Street, North Ormesby, Middlesbrough, admitted four burglaries, one fraud and the car theft.
He asked for two more burglaries - both on the same street in Stokesley on April 24 - to be taken into account.
He was on licence from an eight-year prison sentence imposed in 2009 for 20 house burglaries and 20 other offences taken into consideration.
Scott Taylor, defending, said: “He has asked me to pass on his sincere apologies to all the people concerned in these cases.
“He is perhaps the very definition of institutionalised.
“Over the last 18 years he’s only had one-and-a-half of them at liberty.
“16 years’ imprisonment in the last 18 is a remarkable sign of how institutionalised this man has become.
“The majority of his adult life has been spent behind bars.
“All of that is down to his wrongdoing and his inability to cope when he’s released from custody.”
He said Bennett had made progress since his last release in September last year, but went downhill back to drinking and taking sleeping tablets after a dispute where he lost contact with his family.
Mr Taylor said the stolen jewellery was recovered after Bennett stored it rather than pawning it, realising it might have been of sentimental value. He also told the police where the stolen car was.
He added Bennett had not done a rehabilitation course before but now knew he needed help.
Judge George Moorhouse told Bennett: “It’s quite clear that alcohol’s been your problem.
“But the public have to be protected from people like you who pick on vulnerable people.”
He jailed Bennett for seven years.
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