By Staff Reporter

Last updated at 10:08, Wednesday, 12 December 2012

A thief stole Christmas presents from an elderly woman the day after being released from prison.

Twenty-six-year-old Mark Proudfoot stole £300 in cash and gifts worth £480 after breaking into the woman’s home in Cavendish Court, off Warwick Road, Carlisle.

City magistrates heard how the woman had put her family’s presents in a cupboard under the stairs in a communal hallway in her block of flats.

Prosecutor Pam Ward said her granddaughter was coming to collect them later in the day, on Saturday, and when she arrived at lunchtime the presents were there.

“When she went to collect them at 2.40pm, they had gone,” she said. A set of Makita tools, which belonged to another tenant, had also disappeared. The police were called and a neighbour described seeing a man entering the building and leaving with a rucksack.

Proudfoot, of Grey Street, off London Road, Carlisle, was later identified from CCTV footage which showed him entering the building.

Defence lawyer Geoff Clapp said Proudfoot had only been released from prison the day before, with another person.

He was extremely sorry, Mr Clapp said, “but he was off his head.”

District judge Gerald Chalk adjourned the case for sentencing at Carlisle Crown Court and remanded Proudfoot in custody.

He shouted “sorry, mum” to his mother as he left court.

The case was adjourned until January 11 at Crown Court.

First published at 09:54, Wednesday, 12 December 2012
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk