A HEROIN addict stole jewellery from his wife’s aunt while she trusted him to look after her dogs.

Graham Jackson, 31, from Pye Street, Faringdon, helped himself to jewellery worth more than £10,000 while looking after his aunt-in-law Linda Sheppard’s dogs.

Oxford Crown Court heard yesterday that Miss Sheppard noticed a ruby pendant missing from her jewellery collection but didn’t think much of it.

It was not until several days later when she went back to look at her jewellery she discovered the box had been emptied and 45 items, worth £10,100, stolen.

Items taken between November 2011 and April 2012, included her mother’s wedding ring and a gift her late father had given to her mother.

Jackson sold the jewellery at a pawn shop, making just £800 from the irreplaceable collection.

Prosecuting, Paul Harrison said: “When Miss Sheppard, having found out what had happened, went to make enquiries as to whether she could recover any of it, it had all been melted down.”

The court heard since the theft, Jackson had stopped taking heroin and had now been clean for three months and three weeks.

He was sentenced to 12 months’ community service, including a six- month drug rehabilitation order, and ordered to pay £1,000 compensation.

Judge Christopher Compston told Jackson: “It was a breach of trust.

“She liked you, probably loved you, gave you her key. It was disgraceful.”

But he said there was nothing to be gained by jailing the father of two.