ROBBERS and burglars cause untold misery for their victims, often leaving them traumatised and without possessions they have treasured.
Such criminals appearing before local courts often commit the offences without any thought for the impact they have on others.
Their crimes are usually as a result of wanting money to buy drugs.
Here are seven of the worst local thieves and robbers who are now spending time behind bars after being jailed for their crimes in 2021.
Gary Spilsbury
Gary Spilsbury
PROLIFIC thief Gary Spilsbury, from Farnworth, mainly targeted the homes of elderly or vulnerable people.
The 48-year-old heroin addict tied up a young woman after breaking into her flat and threatened to rape her if she did not give him her bank pin number.
A day earlier he had broken into the home of a 77-year-old woman, knocked her to the floor and tied her up before ransacking the property and stealing jewellery, cash and her mobile phone. He returned later demanding her bank pin number.
Spilsbury also burgled the home of an 88-year-old man, stealing goods and the pensioner's car as well as burgling three properties in sheltered housing complexes and taking goods from other break-ins.
Spilsbury worked with his wife, Gemma Spilsbury, who advised him about what to steal and would take items to pawnbrokers.
Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard that Gary Spilsbury already had convictions for 115 previous offences, including robbing elderly people, burglaries and dealing drugs.
Jailing him for 13 years, Judge John Potter branded him a "ruthless and determined criminal".
Gemma Spilsbury, of Weston Street, Bolton, was jailed for eight months.
Oliver Khosravi
Oliver Khosravi
TEENAGER Oliver Khosravi brought terror to the streets of Bolton with a series of violent, knife-point robberies.
In a succession of attacks one man was slashed across the face and another was punched and kicked unconscious as Khosravi, then aged 17, and a gang of young thugs targeted victims for their mobile phones and wallets.
During a week-long period Khosravi, of Nuffield Close, Heaton, carried out three street robberies and, after he was caught and granted bail, went on to commit a fourth.
Khosravi's crime spree began in the early hours of New Year's Day 2020 when he and his accomplices sneaked up behind a man on Great Moor Street and attacked him before grabbing his phone. The victim needed 10 stitches to a deep gash on his chin.
Four days later he robbed a second man, who was walking across Sainsbury's car park, at knifepoint and in the same week targeted a 17-year-old who was on Newport Street. The teenager was knocked unconscious and kicked and stamped on before his wallet, phone and earphones were taken.
Khosravi was arrested but went on the run after being granted bail, but he was caught after robbing another man at knifepoint on Chorley New Road, Horwich and found by security staff at Middlebrook Retail Park hiding the weapon.
At Bolton Crown Court Khosravi was sentenced to nine years in a young offenders' institution.
Judge Graeme Smith told him: "You had a number of problems earlier in your life, but there is nothing there that can begin to explain what led you to become both a violent and a dangerous offender.
"You have shown a total disregard for the well-being of others, but also a completely reckless attitude."
Sean Finn
Sean Finn
BRAZEN Sean Finn decided to rob an 83-year-old man as he withdrew £150 from a cash machine as a present for his grandson.
But Finn, aged 39, had met his match as, despite being knocked to the ground beside the cashpoint at the Morrison's store in Chorley Old Road, the sprightly pensioner clung onto his attacker's legs, toppling him over.
After a tussle Finn broke free and ran off with his victim's cash and bank card.
He was arrested at his home in Pryce Street, Bolton after police recognised him from the store's CCTV footage.
Bolton Crown Court heard that Finn could remember little of what happened as he had been taking drugs.
Jailing him for four years the Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh told Finn: “Clearly this was an attack, whether spontaneous or not, targeted against a vulnerable elderly man.”
Nasser Hussein
Nasser Hussain
A QUICK-THINKING disabled woman filmed burglar Nasser Hussein on her mobile phone as he searched rooms in her sheltered bungalow.
The brave woman got herself out of bed and into her wheelchair to confront 39-year-old Hussein, who had a knife in his pocket and who told her he was looking for alcohol.
Hussein, of Firs Road, Bolton, left empty-handed but was arrested after police released stills from the woman's video and a Bolton News reader recognised him.
After admitting burglary and possessing a knife, Hussein was jailed for 28 months by Judge Graeme Smith at Bolton Crown Court.
Hussein, who had been taking drugs and drinking heavily, claimed in court that he had walked into the woman's house because he and his friends were looking for a party.
But Judge Smith told him: “How anyone could believe there was a party going on there once you had opened the front door and looked in is beyond me.”
Ryan Walkden
Ryan Walkden
THE callousness of some burglars knows no bounds. Ryan Walkden's victim was a 100-year-old man who found him in his bedroom in the early hours of the morning.
The housebound pensioner had been sleeping with a window slightly open in a ground floor room at the Horwich house where he lived with his son and daughter-in-law.
Walkden clambered into the room as the frightened pensioner lay in bed and grabbed his £300 television before fleeing.
The elderly man alerted his family by pressing his personal alarm and police recognised 33-year-old Walkden, of no fixed address, from CCTV at the property.
In a statement read out at Bolton Crown Court the pensioner's daughter-in-law said that watching television was one of his few pleasures and that Walkden had "ruined" what was left of his life.
Walkden was jailed for the burglary and other thefts committed in Preston, to a total of five years and six months in prison.
Mark Evans and Shaun Wynne
Mark Evans and Shaun Wynne
PROLIFIC burglars Mark Evans and Shaun Wynne were caught red-handed breaking into a home on Chorley Old Road, Bolton and forced to hand over a stolen laptop when a man intervened.
The walked off but police searched the area and, when arrested, Wynne, who was carrying a knife, had a mobile phone on him from the burglary.
Evans, aged 46, and Wynne, aged 39, were each jailed for three years at Bolton Crown Court.
Nick Ross, defending Evans, told the court: "He is not very good at burglary as he keeps getting caught”.
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