A FORMER Oldbury soldier who stole more than £1,000 from a frail pensioner at her home has been locked up for 25 months.

Joshua Woodhouse, who was stationed with the armed forces in Afghanistan and had heavy debts and needed money to help ease his financial problems, spotted where the woman kept her cash while cleaning windows.

Judge Nicholas Cartwright told the 26-year-old father-of-one it was clear he raided the woman's flat on two occasions in his job as a window cleaner.

He said window cleaners were in a unique position because they were able to take ladders to people's homes and then “peer into their properties”.

The judge told Woodhouse his crimes were a gross breach of trust and members of the public had to know such offending would be met with immediate custody.

Woodhouse was rumbled after the family of the 76-year-old widow installed a CCTV system after £1,000 had earlier gone missing from a wardrobe in her bedroom.

The window cleaner was caught on camera stealing £20 and when he was arrested, he denied taking the cash but he had a change of heart when he viewed the footage.

The judge said it was clear he was hoping to get more money when he entered the flat a second time adding that distraction burglaries were “mean and particularly serious” when the elderly were targeted.

He said Woodhouse knew the pensioner – described as being fiercely independent – had poor eyesight and he felt he would not have been seen when he took the cash.

Woodhouse, of Bleakhouse Road, Warley, admitted two burglaries and he accepted it was “nasty” offending, said Mukhtar Ubhi, defending.

He told Wolverhampton Crown Court Woodhouse was £6,000 in debt and by chance he learned the location of the pensioner's money pot.

“He knows what he did was a breach of trust and he is remorseful,” said Mr Ubhi.

The judge said Woodhouse had been a man of positive good character who had served his country overseas, but his crimes were so serious only immediate custody was justified.