Serial Hartlepool offender stole from vulnerable pensioner after drug left him 'powerless'

Tammy Wilmot made off with around £200, cigarettes and towels after giving the drug to the 68-year-old victim to supposedly ease pain in his legs, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The 32-year-old criminal, who has a long record of more than 100 offences linked to drug taking, was jailed for two and a half years after she admitted burglary.

The judge said she had deliberately targeted the elderly and vulnerable victim, who lives in sheltered accommodation and has long-term health problems.

Prosecutor Paul Newcombe said the victim allowed Wilmot into his flat after an earlier meeting when she said she would bring him some leggings to relieve pain.

He said: “But once in the flat she revealed she had no such leggings. She made him a cup of tea and emptied the contents of a tablet onto a cigarette paper.

"She told him to ‘have this it will ease the pain’ and he took it.

"Subsequently he felt affected by what she had given him and felt that he could hear her rummage around through his belongings but could do little about it and attributed his seemingly powerless state to the drug she had given him.”

The victim felt her running her hands over his legs, body and down the sides of his chair where she found £115 in cash.

Wilmot, previously of York Road, Hartlepool, admitted taking the cash plus around £70 from a money box which was intended for Christmas presents for the victim’s grandchildren.

She denied taking other items and was dealt with on the basis that she did not give him the drug to steal from him but took advantage when he became woozy.

Martin Scarborough, mitigating, suggested it was done on impulse, adding: “She’s not someone who has a prevalence to burglary.”

Less than three weeks later last August, Wilmot mugged another elderly and disabled man of £160 at a cashpoint in Hartlepool town centre.

Sentencing Wilmot for the burglary, Judge Timothy Stead said: “The victim was not only vulnerable he was visibly vulnerable and that was known to you.

"It can only be regarded as targeting him.”

Related news: Stealing £263 of meat from Aldi and other recent Hartlepool court cases

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