A FORMER window cleaner who attacked one of his old customers to steal money to feed his Class A drug habit has been jailed for seven years.

Anthony Guy, 34, hit his victim twice around the head with a metal bar, leaving him requiring hospital treatment.

He pleaded guilty to an offence of robbery at Bradford Crown Court, having already admitted charges of burglary and theft.

Prosecutor John Bachelor told the court that on September 10 last year, Guy, of Canterbury Avenue, Bradford, approached Mr Murphy as he was unpacking some food shopping at his home in Kingswood Street, Great Horton.

Guy was said to have walked into the house and asked Mr Murphy: “Can I borrow some money?”

After taking a small bottle of loose change from the kitchen, he said: “Come on, you must have some more?”

The defendant then walked up to Mr Murphy’s television and began unplugging the wires to remove it.

Mr Bachelor said that when Mr Murphy tried to stop Guy, he “took offence” and pushed him against a cabinet.

He then pulled an implement from his pocket, described as a metal bar wrapped in a plastic bag, and hit Mr Murphy around the right eye. Holding him by the chest, Guy then again asked his victim for more money before striking him for a second time.

At this point, Mr Murphy handed over his wallet, which contained £75, which Guy took, along with his mobile phone.

Mr Bachelor said Mr Murphy was “scared and felt he had no other option.” He was taken to hospital with swelling to his eye and marks to his head and arms.

The court heard that a week prior to that offence, on September 3, Guy had stolen from the home of another former window cleaning customer in Farside Green, Bradford.

He entered the woman’s home and asked her if he could borrow a cup for his new house.

Before she could throw him out, he stole her wallet, which contained “sentimental” pictures of her daughter, phone, and a door key.

Guy also admitted burgling the home of a woman he knew in Southfield Lane, Bradford, on September 20, when he entered the house through an open window to steal a television and laptop, said to be worth a combined total of £380.

Ken Green, for Guy, said his client’s offending had taken place during a “three-week spree” in which he had returned to drug use following the breakdown of his relationship with his partner and mother of his four-year-old daughter.

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He said Guy was now drug-free and had said: “I’m a completely different man when I’m not on drugs.”

Jailing Guy, Recorder Duncan Smith said he had an “appalling record of dishonesty”, adding: “This was a robbery in a man’s own home where violence was used upon him.”