A FORMER drug addict who stole precious heirlooms from a house as it was being renovated has been jailed.

Heroin user Gareth Atkins took two £1,000 rings, a pearl necklace and a TV from a home in Cutteslowe, North Oxford.

One of the rings belonged to the occupant’s late mother.

The 31-year-old, from Croxford Gardens, Kidlington, admitted one count of burglary at an earlier hearing.

Jane Malcolm,prosecuting, said he broke into the Scott Road home on the night of November 16 and 17. He told police he had an accomplice.

Speaking after the hearing, the victim, who is in her 70s, said: “The whole thing was distressing.

“The ring can be replaced but it will never be the ring my mother wore on her finger.”

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: “I am sorry for the young man but I hope he is sorry about the problems and trouble he has caused me.”

Miss Malcolm said Atkins gained entrance to the property through an upstairs window by climbing on scaffolding at the back of the house.

She said his DNA found on a sock in the bedroom led to his arrest.

Peter du Feu, defending, said his client had a heroin addiction for 16 years but was now free of the drug and methadone.

He said: “His mother says it’s Jekyll and Hyde. When he’s off the drugs he’s the nicest son she could hope for.

“When he’s on the drugs nothing else matters, he thinks about nothing else but getting the drugs to feed the habit.”

Mr Du Feu said Atkins pawned the rings at Albermarle and Bond in Cowley Road, East Oxford.

He said he hoped police may now be able to recover them.

Atkins has 15 previous offences to his name, including three other domestic burglaries.

Judge Mary Jane Mowat jailed him for three years at Oxford Crown Court on Friday.

She recommended he be offered a drug-rehabilitation programme on release on licence after 18 months.