Old lady targeted by gang while she was gardening
A BURGLAR whose gang targeted a Doncaster pensioner while she was out enjoying her garden has been locked up for more than four years.
Jason Russell Hale was one of three men who raided the elderly woman's house in Upperthorpe, Westwoodside, as she was pottering in the front garden, a court heard.
The 22-year-old acted as the lookout while another distracted her in the garden and a third man entered the property through the unlocked conservatory door.
She only realised a crime was being committed when she turned round to see her Volvo car being driven away and the other men escaping, Chris Geeson, prosecuting, told Doncaster Crown Court.
The car was recovered a few days later after a long police chase.
Hale, of Balby Road, Doncaster, was on bail at the time for another burglary committed in Chapel St Leonards on the east coast.
On this occasion he broke into a flat occupied by a family and stole property worth 350 as they slept. Police tracked him down because he drank a can of lager from the flat and left his fingerprints on the empty can.
Hale pleaded guilty to both burglaries, taking the Volvo without consent, and a separate offence of racially aggravated assault on an Afro-Caribbean man in Doncaster town centre earlier this year.
The court was told Hale had 19 previous court appearance going back 10 years, seven of which were for house burglaries, and was liable to a minimum of a three year prison term.
His barrister, Megan Rhys, said he was entirely realistic about the sentence and was no stranger to prison because of his horrendous record. She said the latest offences were committed after his uncle died when he began drinking heavily and "was in a state of almost permanent intoxication."
Hale was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for the burglaries, a consecutive 12 months for the racial assault, and another month for breaching bail.
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