Burglar posed as PC to steal from pensioners

West Midlands Police have jailed a burglar who posed as a police officer to trick his way into pensioners' homes after tracing him from DNA found on a cigarette.

Jason Fellowes, from Badgers Way in Stechford, convinced four Birmingham residents he was a detective probing past burglaries and offering crime prevention advice to keep valuables safe.

He struck first in West Heath on 24 July last year after flashing an ID badge at an 83-year-old woman and claiming he had arrested a prisoner in connection with a historic break-in at her home.

She later found a CCTV camera had been dislodged from her porch and £300 missing from a wardrobe.

Fellowes used similar tactics to steal £130 from an 81-year-old man in Kings Norton on 21 September; £600 from a 72-year-old Quinton woman on 3 October; and two days later took £200 from a 68-year-old woman in Yardley Wood.

He dropped a roll-up cigarette inside the Quinton address that, following forensic examination, returned a DNA ‘hit’ to Fellowes.

He was jailed for five years and four months.

Birmingham South Burglary Team Sergeant Sandy Thompson, said: