A CYNICAL burglar who repeatedly preyed on vulnerable people, including a blind 90-year-old, by posing as a carer before stealing from their homes, has been jailed.
Tracey Herkess, who had a string of similar previous convictions, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to four charges of burglary, including two at the same address.
Herkess, 45, who is from Coventry but of no fixed address, was jailed for six years by the judge, who said she had ‘cynically targeted’ vulnerable people.
Prosecutor Madhu Rai said that Herkess’s first victim was a 90-year-old man who is registered blind and lives on the 14th floor of a high-rise block in Coventry.
On August 9 last year Herkess turned up at his home posing as his carer, and was allowed in by the pensioner.
It was only later the man discovered that while in his flat, she had stolen £500 in cash.
Callous Herkess targeted the same victim three months later when she knocked on his door and asked for a pen and some paper so she could write a note to one of his neighbours.
He invited her in to do so, and while in the flat, on the pretext of brushing something off his trousers, she stole £10 from his pocket and also took an i-Pad from the kitchen.
When he discovered the theft, the pensioner reported the matter to the police – and she was detected because she continued to visit him.
On one occasion he asked her to buy something from a local shop, and as a result she was identified from the shop’s CCTV system, and was arrested.
Miss Rai said that by then Herkess had also targeted two other vulnerable people.
In October she let herself into a house in Eccles Close and asked the elderly occupant for a pen so she could leave a note for one of his neighbours – and it was later found a tablet computer had been stolen from the lounge.
On November 14 Herkess got into the Henley Green home of a 50-year-old woman with learning difficulties.
She claimed to be her new carer, but she had been spotted by a genuine carer when she arrived, and was suspicious.
So he contacted a senior carer and they went to the address where they saw Herkess, who made an excuse and left empty-handed.
Miss Rai added that Herkess had 31 previous convictions for 99 offences, including 21 burglaries – and since 2000 she had been convicted on six occasions for dwelling burglaries.
The last of those had been in June 2014 when she had been given a six-year sentence after targeting a frail, partially-sighted 96-year-old by posing as her carer and stealing her £4,000 life savings.
David Murray, defending, said: “There is very little mitigation that can be put forward with regard to the offences themselves. She accepts they are particularly mean offences.”
Mr Murray said Herkess had had difficulties in her life which she had ‘blanked out’ with drugs.
Following her release she had stabilised and had found accommodation – but then ended up sleeping on the streets after falling out with her family.
He pointed out that Herkess had been released from her previous sentence on licence in January last year, and following her arrest she was recalled to prison, so that time in custody since her arrest will not count towards her sentence.
Jailing Herkess, Recorder Alastair Smith told her: “You deliberately, cynically targeted these individuals because of their vulnerability or perceived vulnerability. You show no remorse for the effects on your victims.”
