ONE of the victims of Alan Aldous, jailed after a burglary spree in Royal Wootton Bassett, has expressed his disgust at the sentence and betrayal.

He told the Advertiser he had tried to steer the prolific thief away from a life of crime, only to end up losing £6,000 in cash from his bar.

The man, who does not want to be named, spoke of his shock when he phoned Swindon Crown Court in the wake of the court case just before Christmas to discover Aldous was only likely to serve an extra five months in jail on top of one of three years and eight months imposed last year.

“It still made me feel sick to my stomach again. I had actually trusted this bloke,” he said.

The burglar, who used to live in The Lawns, admitted five counts of burglary and asked for another to be taken into consideration when he appeared before Judge Tim Mousley. One of his victims was a 91-year-old bedridden woman.

“When I first met him he was on a tag and he was looking at going to prison. He never hid it,” said his would-be mentor.

Aldous wanted something to keep him occupied to stop him from offending. So he was given jobs to do in the bar. He was so earnest the man wrote a letter of support to the court asking for him to be given the chance. The trained chef was given tasks in the kitchen or moving barrels of beer.

But it didn’t last. “As soon as the tag was removed, that’s when he started his series of burglaries.”

After the first burglary in which a cash tine was taken, the man had his suspicions because the thief appeared to be known to his dogs and a chosen a route into the bar that wasn’t immediately obvious to anyone passing by. But he had no proof.

He reported it to the police and was on his way to buy materials to make the back of the bar and the gate more secure when he passed Aldous in the street. “By the time I got back he had already been in and burgled the place.”

That time Aldous got away empty-handed, but he left his DNA on the inside of the juke box. The incident had also frightened the man’s partner who heard the noise of the break in and went downstairs to investigate. “She and the kids were terrified,” he said. As they waited for the court case she mentally prepared herself to give evidence.

“It was difficult. I do my best to protect my family – to allow this person into the business and he does this to us. I have done everything in my power to help him and that’s the way he repays me.”

He described how another elderly victim sat at his bar in tears at the loss of treasured jewellery belonging to his wife.

“If he had admitted it earlier it would have been far, far better than going through months and months of the police coming here and taking statements.”

He added that the eventual loss was nearer £9,000 because of the cost of installing CCTV and extra security.

Aldous, who blames his crack cocaine addiction for his crimes, already had a record of 20 house burglaries and also broke into Wootton Bassett tyres and a primary school. He was jailed for two and a half years, to run alongside the previous sentence.