A PROLIFIC burglar who preyed on the elderly in Medway has been jailed for six years.

Paul O’Hare, 34, posed as a window cleaner or odd-job man to trick his way into pensioners’ homes.

Maidstone Crown Court heard he struck at three homes in a week in October. At the time he had just been released on licence from a three-year prison sentence imposed for similar burglaries.

O’Hare, said to be addicted to heroin and cocaine, stole a purse containing £150 from one couple and conned a 93-year-old Gillingham woman into handing over her bank debit card and PIN.

During the third burglary in Chatham, O’Hare had already been paid £100 for tidying up a back yard when he helped himself to a further £130 and house keys from the 73-year-old homeowner’s coat.

Judge Philip Statman said O’Hare had caused his victims “untold distress”.

“You prey on the elderly who are vulnerable and you trick your way into their premises,” he added. “You are a career burglar and you have burgled the elderly on previous occasions using precisely the same technique.

“What you don’t seem to understand is just the sort of damage you are causing: the emotional damage.”

The court heard that O’Hare committed the offences to feed his drug habit, and in the past had been given help by the courts through drug treatment orders.

But Judge Statman added that the victims’ rights were now of greater importance. “The community as a whole demands and will receive protection,” he explained. “Your interests are subservient to the elderly in the community.”

O’Hare, of Meadowbank Road, Chatham, admitted three charges of burglary and asked for another committed at the home of an 85-year-old woman in Rochester on September 30 to be taken into consideration.

O’Hare was sentenced to six years concurrent for each of the three burglaries.

The court heard O’Hare made full admissions upon arrest. Tom Stern, defending, said there was “precious little” he could say on his client’s behalf.

“The picture is a familiar one,” he added. “Like many before the courts he has had a long-standing, entrenched drug dependency.”

The court was told O’Hare had expressed remorse and was now on drug substitute medication.