A DECORATOR who stole irreplaceable rings from a cancer patient while he was working at her home has been branded as mean by a judge.
David French went into the victim’s home in Bishopsteignton, while she was being treated in hospital and took five rings, including her old engagement ring.
He was desperate for cash to pay rent arrears and drug debts and sold them at jewellers in Exeter and Newton Abbot for a fraction of their £1,500 value.
French owned up a few days later and the police were able to recover four of the five rings before they were sold, Exeter Crown Court was told.
French, aged 30, of Kenmore Road, Bristol, admitted burglary and was jailed for nine months, suspended for two years, ordered to pay £200 compensation and do 125 hours unpaid community work by Judge Graham Cottle.
He told him: ’I’m not sure I need to hear how sorry you are. You damn well should be. It was a terrible thing to do. It was very mean and a gross breach of trust.
’Items of great sentimental value were stolen by you when you had been trusted to work at her house. It is all bad and you could not complain if I sent you inside.
’I am able to suspend the sentence because you were remorseful right from the outset and you have made changes to your life.’
Mr James Taghdissian, prosecuting, said French was a sub-contractor working on the house in The Drive, Bishopsteignton, in July last year, while the owner was in hospital being treated for cancer.
He went back into the house after the rest of the crew left in the evening, claiming he was going to use the bathroom. He stole the five rings, which he sold at Gerry and Co in Newton Abbot and Ivor Doble in Exeter.
The victim contacted her builder when she came out of hospital and discovered the theft. The builder called his workers and contractors to a meeting which French did not attend. He confessed the next morning and told the police where the rings were.
French was not represented. He told the judge he is now working as a concrete cutter in Bristol, given up drink and drugs, and repaid the debts that led him to steal.
He said: ’I just want to get this over and done with. I told my boss what I had done when I woke up the next day because I felt so bad about it.’
A probation report said French had split up with his partner of seven years at the time and was living apart from her and their three children.
He was using cocaine at the time but stopped as soon as he was arrested for this offence and has not drunk or used drugs since.
The report said: ’He had drug debts and was receiving threats of violence to him and his children. It was very much an opportunistic offence and he regrets his actions and feels disgusted with himself.’