AN exploitative couple have been branded "despicable and callous" by a judge for conning their way into an elderly pensioner's home and then stealing cash.

Distraction burglars Iwona Pawlovska and Andzej Szoma preyed on an 82-year-old who lived alone in a bungalow in Monton Street, Great Lever.

The Polish-born pair turned up on her doorstep on the evening of August 3 2014 with a small child and prosecutor Andrew Evans told Bolton Crown Court yesterday they "used the boy as an emotional lever".

They claimed they had no money for the electricity meter and their son was upset that he could not have a hot drink before going to bed. The woman gave the couple £5.

However, they returned the next day and while Pawlovska engaged the woman in conversation Szoma slipped into the kitchen and stole three £20 notes from a drawer before they made their excuses and left.

Judge Recorder Peter Wright said: "What you had planned and then committed was a targeted burglary of an elderly lady's home.

"That you took along a child is despicable.

"You had preyed upon her charity and you had called at her home and she felt sorry for you because she believed you were in dire straits.

"She has been left nervous of visitors and inevitably fully of vulnerability and she feels that her good nature has been preyed upon."

In April of the same year Szoma had committed a burglary of a 76-year-old's bungalow in Crompton Close, Hall i' th' Wood.

She caught him in the kitchen of her home and he escaped with her purse containing £53 that she saw him give to an unidentified woman standing in her garden clutching a small child.

Recorder Wright said: "She must have been frightened witless by your presence in her kitchen.

"One of the few pleasures in life for such an elderly lady was having the feeling of comfort and safety in her home and being able to leave the back door open so that her cats could wander in and out of the premises and into the small garden attached.

"You by this action have deprived her of that small pleasure."

On discovering the theft the following day, the victim had the presence of mind to preserve the butt of a cigarette Szoma had smoked.

The DNA traces combined with Szoma's distinctive black trilby hat, which was recognised by staff at his son's school when a description of the offender was circulated, helped officers track the pair down.

Szoma, aged 31, of Calder Road, Great Lever, admitted two counts of burglary and was jailed for a total of three years and months.

Pawlovska, aged 41, of Alston Street, Great Lever, changed her plea to one count of burglary to guilty on the day of her trial.

She received two years' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete a 12-day rehabilitation course and adhere to a 9pm-to-7am three-month curfew.

Both were given five-year restraining orders to protect the victims.