A MAN has been jailed for stealing more than £11,000 and three sentimental rings from the grandparents who raised him.

David Longworth was entrusted with his grandmother Dorothy Gradwell’s debit cards and PIN numbers for her three bank accounts. But the father-of-one siphoned off £3,913, £3,310 and £4,201 from them.

The 29-year-old – who turned to cocaine after being prevented from seeing his young son by his ex-partner – withdrew the funds over the course of 15 months, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Longworth even burgled his grandparents’ house in Harper Green Road, Farnworth, when he knew they were away.

On a separate occasion he stole his grandfather’s mobile telephone just an hour after being given police bail on condition he stayed away from the couple and their property.

In her victim impact statement, Mrs Gradwell said: “What has happened with David has devastated me.

“Me and Peter have brought him up since he was three years old. He wanted for nothing.

“If I saw David it would hurt me. I can’t believe he has done it.

“He has broken my heart with his betrayal.”

Longworth stole three rings from Mrs Gradwell, two of which were each worth more than £3,000.

One was described as a “five stone platinum ring” and one had been in Mrs Gradwell’s possession for 40 years.

He sold the jewellery to a branch of H&T Pawnbrokers for just £124. They have since been recovered.

Longworth, of Turnstone Road, Great Lever, earlier admitted five counts of theft and one of burglary at Bolton Magistrates’ Court before being committed for sentence to the crown court yesterday. Recorder Peter Atherton said: “This is, overall, very significant criminal dishonesty.

“I would have preferred to keep you out of prison and put in place some sort of requirement that would have addressed your drug addiction – if it is an addiction – but overall the seriousness of these offences are such that only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”

Longworth was jailed for 16 months concurrently for each of the three bank account thefts, eight months concurrently for the theft of the rings, four months consecutively for the theft of the mobile telephone and eight months consecutively for the burglary.

His total term of imprisonment was two years and four months and Recorder Atherton imposed an indefinite restraining order to protect the Gradwells.