A BURGLAR drove at a woman as she tried to stop him making off with goods from her Bolton home, a court was told.

A jury at Bolton Crown Court heard how 63-yearold Diana Finch had arrived home at 2.30pm to find Sebastian Renard coming out of the house with a suitcase and backpack.

Renard barged her out of the way and ran to a waiting car as Mrs Finch tried to grab him.

A woman with Renard ran up to Mrs Finch and then, as the woman tried to take a photograph of Renard’s car with her mobile phone, he drove at her, narrowly missing her and forcing her to jump out of the way.

Renard was jailed for seven years after being found guilty of burgling the house in Chorley Old Road on March 15 last year following a three-day trial.

Recorder David Turner, QC, told him: “You were quite prepared to run over this lady whose house you had just burgled so you could get away.”

Among the haul taken by Renard was a £2,500 pearl necklace Mrs Finch inherited from a relative who had been a Japanese prisoner of war and other items of jewellery.

A watch and £2,000 were also taken that belonged to Mrs Finch’s lodger, Mark Fuller.

Every room in the house was ransacked and the burglar had even opened a container holding the ashes of a pet dog.

Police later arrested Renard at his home, where they found heroin with a street value of up to £2,640.

The court heard that Renard, aged 36, of Grimeford Lane, Anderton, was a prolific burglar with a string of convictions. The jury found him guilty of burgling Mrs Finch’s house and assaulting her.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to possessing drugs with intent to supply and an assault on his partner, Kelly Delaney.

Andrew Costello, defending, said Renard’s offending stemmed from drug addiction.

Jailing Renard, Recorder Turner told him: “The misery you cause to people is untold.

“Anybody who has been burgled never forgets it and never feels the same again in their own house.

“You are a bad man. I don’t know whether you’ll ever learn, but you are going to spend more and more time in prison.”