A CONMAN who lied his way into an elderly Worcester pensioner’s flat and then stole four bottles of spirits has been jailed for nine months.

Luke Herbert-Carter knocked at the back door of a flat in Warndon claiming that his pregnant wife had gone into labour and asked to use the telephone.

The kindly occupant Cyril Turberfield, aged 90, showed him into the lounge for the phone and even made him a cup of tea, said Charles Hardy, prosecuting.

But Herbert-Carter repaid him by stealing bottles of whisky and bacardi which he later sold for £20 to buy drugs.

Herbert-Carter, aged 23, of Brookthorpe Close, Warndon, Worcester, admitted at Worcester Crown Court to burglary and fraud in October last year.

Mr Hardy said Herbert-Carter was arrested in a neighbouring flat the same day and initially denied he had made up the story that his wife was pregnant.

Two days later, on October 23, Herbert-Carter called at the Warndon home of 64-year-old Colin Hughes, claiming he was collecting for an Aids charity. He had a red collecting box and an identitity badge so Mr Hughes gave him £2.

Herbert-Carter later denied he was the collector but the box and ID card were found in his bin, said Mr Hardy.

One of his previous 21 convictions was for tricking his way into a woman’s home by saying he had been locked out of his own flat. He took her purse when he left and was later jailed in 2009 for three years.

Charles Hamer, defending, said Herbert-Carter, who was married, had a “pernicious” heroin habit and when he was discharged from prison from his previous offence he had no support or resources. He had returned to a community which was riddled with drugs.

Judge Toby Hooper said Herbert-Carter had taken advantage of an elderly, frail and vulnerable man in the distraction burglary by entering his home on a pretext then stealing. The fraud was mean-spirited abuse of public trust in charity-giving.

He gave credit for early guilty pleas which meant that the victims were spared the ordeal of giving evidence in court. The judge ruled that 43 days spent in custody on remand would count against the sentence.