A BURGLAR who targeted octogenarians during a week-long spree has finally been jailed - more than five years after he went on the run in Luton.

Michael Maloney, 41, raided two bungalows and a flat in February 2013.

After the young grandfather's arrest, he appeared before magistrates once before failing to return to the court on a second occasion. A warrant was issued for his arrest, but he wasn't apprehended until June this year.

He spent the intervening years living with family in Bedfordshire, a court heard on Thursday.

Maloney admitted burgling the addresses in Playfields Drive, Poole, Avebury Avenue, Bournemouth and Dunyeats Road, Broadstone, as well as one count of fraud, one of driving while disqualified and one of failing to surrender to custody.

All of the victims of his burglaries were in their 80s, and all have since died.

Tom Evans, prosecuting, said William and Vera Pitman, who lived at the Poole address, had been home and asleep when Maloney broke in through a window and stole Mr Pitman's wallet on February 17 2013.

He then used Mr Pitman's card to withdraw some £300 in cash.

On February 19, Maloney broke into the bungalow in Bournemouth while the owner was gardening.

He stole around £2,000 in cash and jewellery.

It was later discovered that Maloney had burgled the flat in Broadstone on February 15, stealing gold earrings given to the victim on her 80th birthday several years earlier.

Robert Grey, mitigating, argued Maloney hadn't deliberately targeted people in their 80s.

"The defendant was with another person," he said.

"He was told they were easy targets but not that they were infirm or elderly."

However, Judge Peter Crabtree OBE said: "There were three burglaries of octogenarians within a week.

"That is sufficient for me to draw a clear inference."

Maloney, of Preston Road, Dunstable, was a long-standing heroin addict at the time of the burglaries, the court heard. He stayed out of trouble during the period he was on the run, and cared for his father in the time before his death.

"There were a number of occasions when he thought he should hand himself in," Mr Grey said.

"He walked to Luton police station and wavered at the door and walked away."

The defendant hopes to form a relationship with his grandchild when he leaves prison, it was said.

Judge Crabtree sentenced Maloney to four years and four months in prison and banned from from driving for 12 months following his release from custody.