A BURGLAR who ransacked an 87-year-old woman’s home in her presence and damaged her house by making her bath overflow has been jailed for more than three years at York Crown Court.

Shane Gordon Bainbridge, 31, stole the victim’s MBE medal as she pleaded for him to stop what he was doing and walked off with her safe, said Brooke Morrison, prosecuting. He also tried to barricade her in her own kitchen.

“It must have been terrifying,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told Bainbridge of his actions. “Thank your lucky stars she didn’t have a heart attack.”

Ms Morrison said as Bainbridge tried to make his escape, he left the elderly woman on her front drive, crying for help.

Police were nearby and the burglar was arrested with the items he had taken from the woman's Harrogate home.

Bainbridge, of King Edward Road, Ripon, initially denied a charge of burglary, but changed his plea to guilty as his trial approached. He was jailed for three years and three months.

Ms Morrison said the woman was woken by loud banging at 7am on March 8 in her Harrogate home. She got up to find one of her bedrooms had been ransacked and a safe that had been on the wall had been pulled off. Her emergency cash cache of £40 was missing.

Going downstairs, she found Bainbridge pulling things out of cupboards in one of her downstairs’ rooms. His speech wasn’t clear, but she heard him say that he was “from a removal company and was packing her things for her to move”.

They went upstairs together to look for the money, but instead, Bainbridge collected the safe and despite her putting her hand on his arm and asking him to stop, he took it downstairs.

At some stage, he asked to use the toilet and when in the bathroom, he put the plug in the bath and turned both its taps on. She didn’t realise what had happened until after he had gone, and water started leaking down into her kitchen.

Back downstairs, Bainbridge tried to lock the kitchen door, and when he failed, put his shoulder against it to keep it closed. Then he ran off with her safe, dumping contents in the garden.

Neighbours saw him running away through their gardens.

All the stolen items were returned to the woman after Bainbridge was arrested.

For Bainbridge, Ashleigh Metcalfe said he was struggling with drink and drug problems after his older brother had died unexpectedly in 2020.

Although he has a list of previous convictions for shop theft and other crime, this was his first burglary and was therefore out of character.

Since being remanded following his arrest, Bainbridge had got on a methadone prescription. His family was supporting him.