A 30-YEAR-OLD Brierley Hill heroin addict caught on CCTV selling £1,500 worth of jewellery stolen in a raid on the home of an 80-year-old Pensnett woman has been jailed for 16 months.

Wayne Timmins accepted just £350 for the items, which were treasured by the victim, from a gold buyer at Merry Hill.

Judge Martin Walsh at Wolverhampton Crown Court told Timmins the jewellery was of "great sentimental" value to the woman who had been badly affected by the raid on her home.

He said: "You were handling this jewellery and you must have had a pretty good idea where it had come from.”

Timmins, of Mullett Street, Pensnett, admitted handling the stolen jewellery and Amanda Tompkins, defending, told the court he certainly believed the items were the “result of a criminal offence”.

She said Timmins had been addicted to Class A drugs for some time but he had managed to get clean while being held on remand and he now accepted he needed help to get his life back on track,.

David Lees, prosecuting, said the 80-year-old woman discovered her home had been ransacked on her return and her prized jewellery was missing.

But her daughter decided to investigate the matter herself and when she went to the gold buyer she discovered he had bought the items.

Timmins produced his driving licence as identification to carry out the sale and he was also captured on CCTV inside the shopping centre.

After his arrest Timmins, who had made 18 previous court appearances for a total of 48 crimes, told investigating police officers he had been given the jewellery to sell by a friend.