Lodger jailed for stealing landlord's cash

A lodger who stole his landlord's cash card and took thousands of pounds from his account has been jailed for 18 months.

Paul Smith was renting a room at his landlord's home in Witcombe, Yate, when he forced open a cash box where his landlord kept the pin number to his cash card.

Smith then took the card and used it for transactions worth £4,000. Smith, 22, of no fixed address, was on licence from prison for an offence of burglary when he stole the cash. He was arrested after his fingerprints were found on the cash box and later pleaded guilty to one charge of burglary. He was jailed for 18 months and ordered to pay his victim compensation of £3,000 from cash he had been left by his late grandfather.

Judge Simon Darwall- Smith said: "This was a mean offence in which you broke the trust of your landlord."