A CAREER burglar who stole precious mementos of one victim’s mother has been jailed for almost four years.

Scott Grant, who has eight convictions for house break-ins, committed the latest two burglaries in the throes of an addiction to heroin and while out of prison on licence following an earlier jail sentence.

He also asked for four other offences to be taken into account. They included another burglary and a fraud committed on his own mother that had left the woman in considerable distress.

Appearing before the Swindon court this week via video link from prison, Grant heard how his victims felt violated and like they could no longer store valuables in their own homes.

Both victims lived in Trowbridge and their homes were broken into in broad daylight. In the first raid, on the night of July 21, Grant made off with a signet ring and jewellery box. The second, on August 5, saw him flee with cash, foreign currency and an unidentified item described in a personal statement by the victim as the last gift his mother gave him before she died.

That victim said in a statement read to the court by prosecutor Colin Meeke: “I don’t feel that my remaining valuables are secure in my home as my personal space has been violated.”

Grant, 28, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary.

Defending, Richard Williams said: “It is with a heavy heart I can see no reason to try and persuade your honour it would be unjust not to impose the mandatory minimum term. The defendant understands, appreciates and accepts today he will be looking at a significant period of custody.

“He has written a letter and within that letter he describes a relatively long history of addiction to class A drugs, primarily heroin, which is something he wishes to address.

“He offers his apologies to everyone involved, to those whom he has hurt and he feels terrible for what he has done.”

Since being remanded in custody he had stopped using both heroin and substitute methadone. In the past, he had been released from prison back to Wiltshire and had quickly gone back to his old drug-fuelled lifestyle. But he now plans to move to Hampshire when he was next released and hopes to become a professional fisherman on the south coast.

Sentencing him to three years and eight months imprisonment, Judge Jason Taylor QC said: “I have been as merciful to you as I can, but you accept there can be no other alternative.”