A NEWTOWN man has been jailed for a burglary at the home of a pensioner.

Michael Evans, 25, from Treowen, must serve the eight month sentence in addition to a five year and four months sentence he received last year for two robberies.

Judge Rhys Rowlands, sitting at Mold Crown Court, on Wednesday, May 22, hit out at delays in the case which he said now caused sentencing difficulties.

He had to put himself in the position of the judge who sentenced him for the robberies if he had also known about a serious burglary at the home of a vulnerable man.

The house burglary dated back to December 2017.

But in August of last year he had received the substantial sentence for two robberies dating back to February of last year.

The delay appeared to be unacceptable, he said.

The burglary at Newtown occurred when he went with another man, who was known to the victim.

While there he asked to use the toilet as a pretence to go upstairs where he stole debit cards from his trousers.

A short time later the victim received a phone call, purporting to be from the police, asking for his PIN.

It was alleged that call was made by Evans but the victim did not give his PIN and called the police.

The victim was a retired man of 77 who was vulnerable and who had been taken advantage of.

He had been the victim of crime previously.

In a victim impact statement he remained upset by what had happened and found it difficult to trust people.

Evans was sentenced to eight months for the burglary, which was considerably less than if it stood alone. But it would have to be served consecutively to the sentence he was now serving.

He commented that it had taken "a ridiculously long time for the case to get to court."

Defending barrister Phillip Clemo said that his client entered a guilty plea, there had been an unjustifiable delay in the case, and he was deeply concerned about the position he now found himself in.

He was now facing the prospect of his sentence being extended for no good reason, he said.