A WOMAN tricked her way into a pensioner's home by pretending to be pregnant before robbing her at knifepoint.

Vicky Burey, aged 41, was yesterday jailed for more than six years at Bolton Crown Court for robbery.

The court heard how Burey, of Alder Street, Great Lever, had conned her way into the elderly woman's house, saying she was pregnant and her waters had broken on July 10 of last year.

Burey then threatened her with a kitchen knife and pushed the elderly woman out the back door and ransacked the house, taking a bank card and some medicine, which were recovered.

Burey was still in the house when the police arrived and she was arrested.

She pleaded guilty to the offence.

Prosecutor Michelle Brown told court how this had left the vulnerable woman with lasting psychological damage.

The court heard the victim had barely slept since the robbery and was afraid both inside and outside the house.

A statement from the victim, read by Ms Brown, said: “I’m living on my own and constantly in fear.”

She added: “Not only has she stolen from me, she’s taken my independence.”

Ms Brown said that ever since the offence, the victim has needed carers to do her shopping for her and needs visitors to perform a “special knock” before she lets them enter.

Defence counsel Hugh Barton said that Burey had shown “genuine remorse” for her crime and that many of her problems stemmed from a traumatic childhood and from a case of post-traumatic stress disorder.

He told the court that his client had been addicted to drugs since she was 14 and that her life had fallen into a “tragic pattern” ever since but that she intended to use her time in custody as positively as possible.

Judge Tom Gilbart acknowledged that Burey had suffered a “traumatic and difficult childhood” but, in his summing up, emphasised the seriousness of her crimes and the impact they had had on her victim.

He said: “It should be to your great shame that you made her feel this way.”

Burey was sentenced to six years and nine months in prison.