Two drug addicts were today starting five-year jail terms for the “utterly depraved” burglary of a traumatised pensioner who later died of heart failure.

Steven Johnstone and Christopher Ellison tricked their way into 73-year-old Arnold Deaves’s Bradford home in the early hours by pretending to be police officers or Customs officials, a court was told.

During the burglary, described by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall as “disgusting” and “revolting”, they even stole rings with great sentimental value from the man’s fingers, leaving him in tears.

Johnstone, 26, told Mr Deaves that he had been under surveillance for six months and they knew he had been handling stolen goods.

Prosecutor Matthew Harding said the confused pensioner, who lived alone in St Blaise Court, off Manchester Road, was shown a badge with a photograph, but he was not allowed to make a closer inspection of it.

Mr Deaves was told he would be arrested if he did not co-operate and that the men were obliged to seize any property they believed to be stolen.

“At one stage a call was received on a mobile phone and answered with the words ‘Yes sarge, we’re in’,” said Mr Harding.

Bradford Crown Court heard that the pensioner told the men to arrest him because he had suspicions about them, but they said they were giving him a chance to avoid that.

“They remained at the address for one and a half hours, going through the entirety of the property,” said Mr Harding.

“At one stage the complainant produced receipts for items to prove they had been purchased legitimately. The defendants simply took the receipts and items and helped themselves to food from the fridge.”

Mr Deaves, who was a diabetic, had valuable and sentimental rings taken from his fingers and £300 was removed from his wallet.

The pensioner was left crying in his living room by the burglars, but later that same day the duo returned and took away other electrical equipment.

In his statement to police Mr Deaves said he had been left feeling scared and insecure.

“He said he hadn’t been able to eat for three days afterwards. He was scared to leave his house and had difficulty sleeping,” said Mr Harding.

The defendants, who both lived nearby in Stuart Court, were arrested with the help of E-fits and the fact that Johnstone walked with a distinctive limp as police found CCTV footage which showed the two men carrying items away.

Johnstone, who suffers from a hip problem following a road accident, admitted his part in the burglaries at an early stage, but it was not until his trial last month that Ellison finally pleaded guilty.

The court heard that Mr Deaves died of cardiac failure on June 16 but his statements were read by the prosecution as evidence in Ellison’s trial.

Both defendants, who also admitted a charge of pretending to be an officer of the Revenue with a view to obtaining permission to enter premises, were each jailed for five years and three months.

Jailing them, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said: “The court is compelled to use language that is best placed to describe the utter disgust, condemnation and revulsion that any right-minded citizen on hearing those facts will say.

“The man in the street, of whom I’m one it should be said, would only use words like ‘utterly depraved’ and ‘sick’.

“Both of you by choice are addicted and committed to taking heroin and crack cocaine and therefore it follows that as a result of your chosen lifestyle you prey upon members of society.

“You deliberately targeted, in my judgement, this man knowing him to be alone at his home, elderly and infirm. You targeted him because he was an easy and vulnerable victim.

“You targeted him because he was known to have property which you could sell including property of great sentimental value.”

The judge said he was satisfied that the duo knew their victim was extremely ill.

He said: “The reality is, without having any evidence of course to support causation, that you made that man, who had but two months in fact to live, you made his last days the more unbearable.”

Judge Durham Hall said Mr Deaves would have been scared, terrified and submissive after being threatened with arrest in the early hours.

“The only victim impact statement I have seen says thereafter he was unable to eat which must have exacerbated his condition. Unable to sleep and scared to leave his house,” said the judge.

“This is as burglary goes, in my judgement over 35 years, as bad as it gets.”

Johnstone’s lawyer, Ann Marie-Hutton, said he had expressed his genuine remorse through his early guilty plea.

She said her client's record of previous convictions was consistent with someone who had been plagued by a substantial drug addiction for some time.

The judge was told that Ellison, who asked for seven further offences including house burglary to be taken into consideration, had fallen into bad company and become addicted to drugs.

Judge Durham Hall jailed each man for five years for the burglaries at Mr Deaves’s home and added a further three months for the impersonation offence.

Speaking at the end of the trial, Detective Inspector Mabs Hussain, of Bradford South CID, said: “We welcome the sentences given to both Johnstone and Ellison.

“These are two individuals who targeted a vulnerable adult living in the community and purely for the reasons described by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC. I totally agree with the judge’s comments in summing up this case.

“The sentencing will be little comfort to his Mr Deaves’s family but it shows the seriousness we take to these types of offences.”