A HOMELESS man repaid a good samaritan who put a roof over his head by stealing cash and jewellery from her house, a court heard.

Appearing at North East Wales Magistrates, Jordan Lee Lockett, 24, pleaded guilty to taking four rings and Euros to the value of £143 from Ruth Fleming’s address in Broughton in June this year.

Rhian Jackson, prosecuting, said Lockett and his victim had first met when she was volunteering at a soup kitchen.

They had struck up a friendship and Ms Fleming had allowed him to stay with her while he looked for his own flat.

However, she began to notice a change in his behaviour when he was withdrawing from drugs and he would fly into a rage, threatening to kill her and her family.

Lockett stayed in the Isle of Man for three weeks, but on his return to this country, where he stayed on the streets in Chester, he contacted Ms Fleming threatening to kill himself.

She took him in once again and on this occasion had “glimpses of a kinder, gentler Jordan” who was remorseful and helped out with the housework.

Ms Fleming then had to travel for Oxford for work on June 6 this year, but on her return she found a number of rings missing from her jewellery box as well as an amount of Euros.

She visited a number of local pawnbrokers and was able to recover two of the rings worth £400 and £200, bit the other two, worth over £2,000, remained missing.

In a personal impact statement read out in court, Ms Fleming said Lockett had been “let down” by social services.

“It breaks my heart to see him on the streets,” she said, before adding that his betrayal of trust had knocked her back and made her think twice about letting people stay in her house .

Lockett was arrested on June 21 and gave no comment answers at his first interview.

Rebecca Boswell, defending, said Lockett was “ashamed and embarrassed” by his behaviour.

“He has a very long history of drug abuse and cannot remember whether or not he took the items,” she said. “Unfortunately she (Ms Fleming) is not the first person he has done this to.”

A probation report stated Lockett had been staying with Ms Fleming on and off for eight or nine months, but it was a friendship and not a relationship.

He said that he had not meant to hurt her and felt that his pattern of offending was “ingrained”. In the past he had stolen things before taking them back to the owner because he “does it without thinking”.

Deputy district judge Andrew Jebb said: “You clearly accept that you very seriously breached the trust she (Ms Fleming) had in you.”

Deputy district judge Jebb took the view that his powers of sentencing were not sufficient and ordered Lockett to appear again at Mold Crown Court on August 1. He was bailed with the conditions not to approach Ms Fleming.