A MAN who robbed a 79-year old woman then stole cash from a betting shop claiming he had a gun in his jacket has been jailed.

Simon Fox, of Ock Street, Abingdon, had admitted two counts of robbery and four counts of fraud.

Oxford Crown Court heard at his sentencing on Friday how the 49-year old first ‘followed’ his 79-year victim on January 9 before snatching her handbag.

He later went on to use bank cards he found inside to buy £29.99 worth of tobacco and £9.99 of alcohol from a Londis store. He also used his victim’s bus pass before later turning up to a police station and claiming he had ‘found’ the handbag.

Just weeks later on February 4, the court heard, he went into a Ladbrokes betting store in Abingdon and demanded money from the lone cashier.

He pretended that he had a pistol in his jacket, prosecutors said, and when he was told the safe was on a timed lock he made off with £245 cash from the till.

Fox was spotted by police later that morning despite having flipped his reversible jacket in an apparent bid to disguise himself. He denied any wrongdoing at interview before later admitting the charges.

In mitigation Peter Du Feu said that his client, who has a long record of past offending, had carried out the robberies because of an addiction to the drug Spice – a synthetic form of cannabis.

Sentencing Judge Simon Wilkinson said: “This was a grave offence. Your victim was a 79-year old woman, she required a walking frame to get about. CCTV shows you following her in the streets, there had to be some degree of forethought.

“You then robbed a betting shop, you pretended that you had a gun in your jacket. This was frightening and certainly I am told that one of the staff [now] suffers from fear and anxiety.”

Fox was jailed for a total of seven years, made up of three-and-a-half years for each robbery to run consecutively and three months for each fraud to run concurrently.