Walsall pensioner conned by weeping woman
A kind-hearted pensioner was conned out of £80 by a weeping woman who claimed to need cash to visit her seriously ill mother, a judge heard.
The 75-year-old opened the door of his Blakenall home to find Mickalla Bullock on the doorstep in floods of tears at 5pm, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
Miss Alka Brigue, prosecuting, explained: "She claimed her mother had been taken to hospital and she needed money for a taxi to see her."
When the man handed over £40, the brazen 24-year-old trickster claimed that was not enough and sent him upstairs to collected a further £40, the court heard.
He finally sent Bullock packing and contacted police when she returned the next day seeking more money on December 20, continued Miss Brigue. Later the same day the defendant smashed a ground floor window with a brick at an address in Holland Place, Walsall and escaped with £6.50, it was said.
Traces of her blood were found at the scene. She tested positive for cocaine when arrested on January 15 and was released on bail.
The next day she tried unsuccessfully to burgle two bungalows in Ingram Place, Bloxwich and stole DVDs from a house in nearby Benton Crescent on January 17 before being arrested again. She claimed not to be able to remember exactly what she had done because she was so high on drugs.
Miss Brigue said: "A man living in Ingram Place heard the distinctive sound of the handle on the front door being turned. Initially he thought his wife had returned early from work.
"When he heard the noise a second time he went outside to investigate and saw that his wife's car was not in the drive and so realised it had not been her.
"He then saw a woman, who later turned out to be the defendant, trying the door of another property in the cul-de-sac. She claimed to be looking for her nan and gave a false name before walking away."
Bullock from Walker Road, Blakenall admitted burglary, attempted burglary and false representation and was given a 10 month prison sentence suspended under supervision for two years with a three month curfew and a drug treatment requirement.
Judge Michael Dudley told her: "You have a bad record for one so young. It is plain that this rash of offending was drug related. That does not soften the impact on the victims, some of whom were elderly, but I am giving you a suspended sentence because I think you need some kind of assistance with your life at this time."
