A CAREER criminal who targeted a care home and properties in Radcliffe has been jailed.

Minshull Street Crown Court heard Stuart Whittle struck multiple times over a short period of time.

He first approached Rose Court Care Home in Radcliffe, where he was spotted on camera trying to put a code into the door to get in.

Whittle was then spotted rifling through items in a room but told a member of staff he was visiting his mother.

This was quickly established to be a lie and he was unrelated to the 93-year-old who lived there he said he was seeing.

The staff member who had seen in on the camera found him elsewhere in the property and he was told to leave.

On that occasion Whittle did not get away with anything, but he struck at the home of a widow a short time later, stealing a wedding ring and a signet belonging to the owner’s deceased husband.

Lisa Boocock, prosecuting, said: “She says 'it upsets me items of sentimental value have been stolen'.

“She wants the defendant to explain why he felt the need to break into her home to steal personal items.”

Blood of Whittle’s at the scene allowed police to identify him as the man responsible.

He struck again at two properties on Meadowcroft in Radcliffe.

At the first of these he entered the home where a man lived with his elderly mother and made off with cash and a wallet.

At the second he was challenged and said he thought he had seen a burglar and was concerned, but when the occupant said he had a camera which could verify events he ran off.

Whittle appeared in court to be sentenced after admitting four counts of burglary in January 2020.

The court heard Whittle, of no fixed above, had an extensive criminal record for burglaries and he was jailed for five years and nine months in February last year for burglary and assault.

Nick Ross, defending, said Whittle had been undergoing rehabilitation in prison.

He added: “There is a background of a career criminal, his first appearance before the court came at the age of 13, it is quite a remarkable record.

“There was not particularly clever planning but as a career criminal these are serious offences.”

Imposing a sentence, Judge John Edwards said some people never feel the same way in their home again after a burglary.

He said: “These are people whose homes you have defiled.

“Burglary is an appalling ordeal, not just from the point of dealing with insurance companies and the like, it is the knowledge that somebody has been in your home.

“Some people never feel the same way in their home again.”

He added that Whittle was in danger of “simply becoming institutionalised” as he was “so inured to custody” due to repeated jail terms.

He imposed a sentence of four-and-a-half years on Whittle.