A YOUTH who preyed on elderly women at his father's nursing home by breaking into their rooms, was put behind bars for two years.

York Crown Court was told that Gavin Crabb was caught red-handed by dad, Richard, who was lying in wait for him to strike again by climbing through an open window.

Crabb, 19, of Grange Avenue, Harrogate, admitted two burglaries and stealing cash at Alderson House Residential Home, Harrogate.

He asked for five similar offences to be considered.

He also pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking when he drove off in his father's car and crashed it, and a further burglary at the home of two sisters, both aged over 80, in St Mark's Avenue, Harrogate, last August.

Crabb, who at one time lived in a caravan in the driveway of the nursing home, also admitted illegally abstracting electricity by linking up a heating system in the mobile home with a supply from his father's nearby garage.

Judge Jackie Davies sent Crabb to a Young Offenders' Institution for a total of two years and banned him from driving for 18 months.

Adrian Waterman, prosecuting, said that while Crabb's father was away on holiday last June, the defendant had taken his Ford Sierra without consent, and was seen to do a hand-brake turn at 50mph in Hornbeam Park, Harrogate.

He then went on to crash into vehicles in the town's Mount Street, but driving off. Mr Waterman said a thief, who turned out to be Crabb, burgled the room of an elderly woman resident at his father's nursing home.

His father then lay in wait and later saw his son enter through an open window and go into a bedroom.

At the home of the two women in their eighties one of whom was blind, Crabb saw one of them leave to walk her dog. He then broke in and stole a purse and returned to take her sister's purse which he first missed, said Mr Waterman.

Fiona Dix-Dyer, mitigating for Crabb, said his resentment was directed at his father whom he blamed for rejecting him as a child when his parents split up.

"He was bitter and confused and saw his father as the eventual victim of his offending", she said.

He did, however, feel particularly sick about burgling old people.

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