Burglar stole from pensioner’s home as she slept
A DESPICABLE burglar raided the home of a 76-year-old cancer sufferer while she was in bed.
Mark Fada crept into the victim’s home in the early hours and took £75, along with bank cards, from her purse.
The pensioner who, as well as having cancer, had just undergone a hip replacement operation, felt “sick” at the thought of a stranger being in her home and was left feeling so unsafe she may move into sheltered accommodation.
Three weeks later, 25-year-old serial criminal Fada broke into another house in the town, where a couple had their three-year-old granddaughter sleeping over.
Fada, and his unknown accomplice, took the keys to a Nissan Juke as well as personal belongings from a room where one of the victims was sleeping.
The couple were left more than £1,000 out of pocket and had to change all the locks to their home.
The husband said his wife was “physically sick” because of what happened.
Fada, of Lonsdale Court, South Shields, who has a long criminal record, admitted two charges of burglary.
He also pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud in relation to £76.99 worth of purchases, including scratch cards, he made with the pensioner’s stolen bank card.
Fada admitted criminal damage in relation to a car he targeted and caused £400 worth of damage to, on October 9.
And he pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods in relation to three iPads that had been stolen from Evans Halshaw garage in Sunderland and were found in his home.
Judge Tim Gittins, at Newcastle Crown Court, sentenced him to a total of three years and three months behind bars.
The judge said the South Shields pensioner, who was burgled last September, could “ill afford” the loss of her money and added: “Moreover, being the victim of such a burglary is very distressing for anyone to know someone has come into the house, all the more when it is done when the person is in and all the more when the person is as old as she was and living alone.
“From her statement, it is clear she had a particularly distressing time. It has had a shattering effect on her independence. She is considering moving into sheltered accommodation as a direct result of your actions.”
Judge Gittins added: “You need to know and understand you are wasting your life as well as causing misery to others.”
Vic Laffey, defending, said drugs are at the heart of Fada’s offending.
Mr Laffey said: “He had accrued significant drugs debts and around the time of these offences he had debts which were simply coming to a point where the pressure being placed upon him was becoming unmanageable and unbearable. He was becoming more and more desperate.”