A BURGLAR who tried to get his elderly victim to tell police he had made a mistake about the crime has been jailed.

Martin Beckman snatched the pensioner's coin collection from his home in High Kilburn, North Yorkshire, last August.

After the theft was discovered and Beckman became a suspect, the 49-year-old dry-liner tried to cover his tracks.

He visited the victim and dictated a letter to him in which he was to say he had simply lost the coins and found them.

The letter ended up in the hands of prosecutors, and Beckman was also charged with perverting the course of justice.

He was found guilty of burglary and perverting justice after a trial at Teesside Crown Court and jailed for a year.

Judge Tony Briggs told him he was a powerfully-built man and "a good deal more forceful" than the frail pensioner.

Robin Turton, mitigating, said Beckman, of Gravel Hole Lane, Sowerby, Thirsk, would be missed for the help he gives his elderly parents.