A DRUG addict who preyed on vulnerable places of worship in Bradford has been jailed for 33 months.

Stuart McCarron added to his already “appalling” criminal record by targeting a Methodist church, a mosque and an elderly Good Samaritan who had given him gifts of money.

McCarron, 39, of Thornville Court, Manningham, Bradford, had 46 previous convictions for 82 offences, including many similar burglaries.

Prosecutor Philip Adams told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that McCarron was found by a church helper looking round Aldersgate Methodist Church, in Common Road, Low Moor, just before morning service on Sunday, October 7.

When she asked him what he was doing, he told her she should be more welcoming.

McCarron asked for a drink of water and while the church official was fetching it, he stole a bank card from her purse that was concealed beneath her coat on a kitchen unit. He used the card four times at the nearby Tesco that day, defrauding the woman of £120 worth of goods.

McCarron next attended a church on Beacon Road, Wibsey, where he was befriended by a woman worshipper aged 83 who invited him into her home and gave him four gifts of money, totalling almost £100. When he turned up at her address for a fifth time, at 8pm on October 28, the pensioner declined to give him any more cash.

McCarron then stole her purse from under a cushion in the living room and used her bank cards to buy goods worth £60.

He struck again on December 1 when he was caught on CCTV inside The Mosque in Little Horton Lane.

The court heard the building had been left open because of ongoing building work.

McCarron was seen putting his hand into the suggestion box and using the torch on his phone to peer inside a charity box, before leaving empty-handed.

He pleaded guilty to burglary, burglary with intent to steal and bank card fraud.

The woman whose purse he stole from her address was left feeling shocked and vulnerable in her own home, Mr Adams said.

Ashok Khullar, McCarron’s solicitor advocate, said his crimes were drug-related.

He was a qualified electrician and had the support of family members.

Most of his convictions were from the magistrates’ court and, now drug free, he was “not proud” of his latest offending.

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC, said McCarron had a “truly appalling” record.

He had committed a catalogue of predatory offences targeting vulnerable institutions and people.

“We have to lock up our places of worship, sadly, because there are people like you who will steal, without shame, from them,” Judge Durham Hall said.

The theft from the elderly church worker was “deeply repugnant.”

“She invited you to her home and gave you money, until the penny dropped that you were nothing but a predator, and then you stole her purse,” the judge told McCarron.

McCarron was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for the burglary offences, plus 15 months for the theft, the sentences to run consecutively.