A devious burglar who stole jewellery worth thousands of pounds from a pensioner was caught out after leaving his fingerprints at the scene.
Daniel O'Donnell, 30, stole a jewellery collection worth £35,000 after promising to carry out work in the victim's garden.
He turned up at a 70-year-old woman's address on Leaford Avenue, in Denton, and offered to carry out work for £250.
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But when she was distracted in her kitchen and back garden, the thief snuck into the house and took two safes containing the precious items and cash.
The victim said the burglary had 'completely ruined her life' and had 'taken away any confidence I had about living on my own'.
O’Donnell, of no fixed abode, has now been jailed for more than five years.
Police say O'Donnell knocked on the woman's door at 11am on Remembrance Day 2020, offering to sort out her overgrown garden.
He then tricked his way into her house after claiming her chimney was leaking.
The victim showed the burglar a cupboard where the chimney breast was, but O'Donnell quickly discovered two safes in the same cupboard.
While the woman was distracted outside, he swept in and stole the safes and her handbag containing her purse, cash and bank cards.
O’Donnell loaded the items into a green wheelie bin and dragged them down the drive under the pretence of ‘moving it out of the way’, police say.
Officers received a report shortly after the woman noticed that her belongings - including jewellery which she collected and repaired as a hobby - had been taken.
It was a fingerprint on the back door which led police to arrest O'Donnell's in this year.
The victim says the incident has shaken her confidence and had a terrible effect.
“This burglary has completely ruined my life,” she said.
“Not only has it taken away my sense of security in my own home and taken away any confidence I had about living on my own, but financially it has left me thousands of pounds down, without my hobby and the only thing I enjoy doing - collecting and fixing jewellery.
"I've collected jewellery since I was a child. This collection, although it was valued at tens of thousands of pounds, meant so much more to me. It was everything.
“I live alone and don’t have family, but used my hobby to pass the time and to occupy me.
“I feel like someone who has been left with nothing and without any happiness."
O'Donnell was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court on December 14.
He was also sentenced for an assault and stalking a woman, Greater Manchester Police said.
Police say the stalking case relates to an incident in which a victim was punched 30 to 40 times before O’Donnell messaged and stalked her afterwards.
Rick Beswick, of GMP's Tameside district, said: “O'Donnell is a callous individual that not only assaulted a woman and stalked her - leaving her extremely fearful - but targeted an elderly woman in her own home.
“The elderly woman has been left shaken and upset since the incident occurred and all of the jewellery she's had and collected since a teenager - including family heirlooms - has gone at the hands of him.
“After we received the report, we started to piece the case together and have now brought him to justice and put him where he belongs - behind bars.”
