A HOMELESS man who was befriended by an elderly couple repaid their kindness by stealing their holiday cash.

Pensioners Jim and Eileen Wright were shopping in Bolton in September last year when they came across Terence Hargreaves begging on Bradshawgate.

Concerned about him, they invited him to their home in Halliwell for a meal.

Duncan Wilcock, prosecuting, previously told Bolton Crown Court how 45-year-old Hargreaves accepted and the couple’s generosity continued over the next two weeks, with homeless Hargreaves being allowed in every time he knocked at their door.

On October 4, the Wrights were planning a holiday to Portugal and, in preparation, had £1,000 in an envelope in their living room.

But Judge Elliot Knopf was told how, while Mrs Wright was out and her husband was upstairs, Hargreaves sneaked in through an unlocked door.

“When Mr Wright came downstairs the cash was no longer on the coffee table,” said Mr Wilcock.

A neighbour reported seeing Hargreaves peering over a fence and, following arrest he admitted he had burgled the house.

The court heard that, since the theft, Mr Wright has died and, in a statement read out in court, his widow said she was convinced the burglary contributed to her husband’s death.

She wrote: “The money was for a holiday which, sadly, would have been my last with my husband.

“We tried to help the defendant, however, this was broken trust. We took him in to help him. It makes me feel sick inside.”

Hargreaves, who admitted burglary, was due to be sentenced for the offence in March at the same time as he was sentenced for robbery, possessing a knife and assault at the Spar store in Castle Street and attempted theft from Premier News in Settle Street.

He was jailed for six years and two months for those offences, but sentencing for burgling the Wrights’ house was adjourned as Hargreaves disputed the circumstances of the crime.

The prosecution alleged that the crime was a breach of trust, but Colin Buckle, defending, stated that Hargreaves had been seen by a neighbour of the Wrights knocking on the door and shouting ‘Jim’.

He described the burglary as then being opportunist.

“It was only when the defendant thought someone was not in that he took the opportunity,” he said.

Yesterday at Bolton Crown Court the prosecution and defence agreed that, as Hargreaves has already been given a lengthy sentence for the robberies, the principle of totality means that any sentence for the burglary would not substantially alter the length of time he will spend in jail and so the matter was not pursued further.

The court had previously heard that Hargreaves, of no fixed address, had been diagnosed with a personality disorder in 2011 and prescribed medication.

But Hargreaves, who has a lengthy criminal record, subsequently stopped taking the medication and slipped back into taking heroin and crack cocaine, stealing to fund his habit.

Judge Elliot Knopf sentenced him to six months in prison for the burglary, consecutive to the robbery sentence he is already serving.