A REPEAT offender who stole a purse from a 91-year-old lady during a spree of crime has been jailed for four years.

Michael Loraine, who has a 40-year history of crime, targeted the old lady as she was shopping in the town centre earlier this year.

And the 51-year-old, who was on early release from prison, also broke into three houses across Highworth and Swindon.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court that Loraine took the purse, which contained £10, as the woman was shopping in a pound shop on Friday February 17.

He said when police saw CCTV footage from the town centre store they recognised the defendant, who was also identified shoplifting from HMV a month earlier.

Mr Meeke said he burgled a home in Hilton Close, Lawn, between November 24 and December 15, leaving empty handed.

Then in the first few days of April this year he raided a house on Biddel Springs, Highworth, stealing jewellery worth about £700 and some cash.

And over the same few days he also broke into a house on nearby Windrush, in the town, taking a £1,300 Tag Heuer watch, cash and commemorative coins.

Homeless Loraine pleaded guilty to three counts of burglary and two of theft.

The court heard that he has a long list of previous convictions and has been sentenced as a three strike burglar more than once before.

He was jailed for three years in 2015, just under three years in 2013 and about two and a half years in 2011.

Richard Martin, defending, said that his client was 'old enough to know better' and accepted he again faced jail as a three-strike burglar.

He said he had been on methadone to deal with his drug problem but had come off it as 'it disagreed with him'.

The three burglaries had all been of unoccupied houses and though he caused some damage there was no ransacking.

"You are left with a recidivist today currently being treated for mental health issues and serving time he has done drugs and emotional courses," he said.

Jailing him Judge Tim Mousley QC said: "Between November of last year and March this year you burgled the homes of three people in the Swindon area and you committed two offences of theft, one a very serious matter because you stole a purse from a 91-year-old lady.

"You were detected because you were identified from CCTV footage and on two occasions you left blood at the scene of your burglaries. You are 51 and you have been committing offences since the age of 11.

"On occasion you have been sentenced to the statutory minimum sentences for repeated burglaries on more than one occasion. Again you are in that position today.

"You will steal whatever is easy to take and what is easy to dispose of. You target premises that are easy to enter by your own unsophisticated ways, normally when the householders are away."