Michael HaldenbyFACED with debts and a moneylender's threats, a Devizes man, hooded and dressed all in black, raided his deaf grandmother's warden-controlled flat as she lay in bed.

Michael Haldenby threw a towel over the frightened old lady's head so that she should not recognise him as he snatched money from her bedside.

But a court heard on Friday that he need not have stolen the money. "She told the police afterwards that if only he had asked she would have been happy to give him the money," Matthew Scott, defending, told Salisbury Crown Court.

Instead, Agnes West, aged in her 80s, was left traumatised and so frightened by the ordeal that she stayed in bed at Stanford Court for half an hour after he left, too scared to move.

Haldenby, 38, of Colston Road, Devizes, was appearing before the Crown Court for sentence after admitting burglary when he stole £170 belonging to his grandmother.

Judge Thomas Longbotham jailed Haldenby for two years for what he called "a very nasty offence".

He said it was an offence with a number of aggravating factors and told Haldenby: "You burgled your grandmother. You knew she had money. You knew where it was. You knew how to get into her warden-controlled flat. You knew she was deaf."

He said Haldenby had also known she would recognise him so he added to her trauma by hooding himself, and to make sure he was not seen, had thrown a towel over her head.

The judge said Haldenby had been under some pressure because he was in debt, and should have gone to the police.

"That cannot possibly excuse you for robbing your grandmother as you did," he said.

Neelo Stravat, prosecuting, said Mrs West, who was hard of hearing and suffered from arthritis, had woken at 7am on June 8 and unlocked her flat door. As usual she went back to bed.

Then she heard someone she thought was a postman, but a towel was thrown over her head and she caught a glimpse of a figure dressed entirely in black and wearing a balaclava.

When Mrs West, who was very frightened, finally got up, she told the warden what had happened and he called the police.

Mr Stravat said Haldenby was arrested after a neighbour, looking through her window, saw him running away and clearly recognised him as Mrs West's grandson.

Defending, Matthew Scott said Haldenby had had a turbulent life. He had medical problems, being disabled and a diabetic.

He said the story really started about a year ago when, unable to work and existing on benefits, he had run into debt.

Mr Scott said: "He has always attracted people who have bullied him or taken advantage of him and since being disabled he has found it harder to deal with."

Mr Scott said he had borrowed from a moneylender with a large interest rate. When he ran into repayment difficulties he claimed he was visited by "heavies" and threatened.

He now recognised he should have gone to the police and was ashamed that he had stolen from his grandmother whom he visited regularly, doing her shopping and running errands.