A BURGLAR told a have-a-go hero he had AIDS as he scratched him with a hypodermic syringe during a raid on an elderly couple's Dudley home.

Mark Jones had taken the couple, who are both in their eighties, back to their Hillcrest Road home when they saw 42-year-old Scott Pooler inside the property,

He sprang into action and got hold of Pooler - a man with 77 previous crimes on his record including 28 burglaries - in a bear hug and he hung on, said Paul Spratt, prosecuting.

He told Wolverhampton Crown Court that a neighbour also moved in to help detain Pooler, who had threatened to stab out with the syringe he was wielding.

It was after police officers arrived that Mr Jones realised his hand was bleeding from puncture marks off the needle and he was given immediate vaccinations at hospital as a precaution.

Pooler, of no fixed address, took just £2 in change from the property and after his arrest he was also found to be in possession of a small bag of cocaine for his personal use.

"You have a significant criminal history" Judge James Burbidge QC told Pooler. "You committed these offences while you were in the throes of your addiction to class A drugs."

He said Pooler had raided the house just weeks after his release from a five year jail term imposed for burglary and "mercifully" for the couple Mr Jones went to pick them up.

The judge said: "He was able to take a hold of you and you threatened him with the syringe. He is clearly a man made of sterner stuff because you continued to struggle."

As he jailed Pooler for 64 months, the judge said that Mr Jones was faced with "continuing anxiety" because he had to make further hospital visits to make sure he had not been infected.

Nicole Steers, defending, said Pooler, who admitted robbery and possessing the cocaine, was a heavy drug user but it had never been his intention to cause any harm with the syringe.

After his release from prison he had gone back to drugs but he was a man with no previous convictions for violence and he was full of remorse for his actions.