A WORKMAN was informed on by a colleague after he stole a purse containing £450 cash from a young mother while on a job.

Paul Taylor was helping to fit new lighting in a Chinese takeaway in Stockton but in a “spur of the moment piece of stupidity” took the purse from the victim’s first floor flat above, having been allowed access to it to do the work.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Taylor told his colleague on leaving the scene: “Drive quickly, I have lifted her purse.”

The man later told the owner of the takeaway, the victim having already reported the purse missing. It was eventually recovered, minus the cash and various bank cards.

Taylor, 46, of Hartington Road, Stockton, admitted burglary on November 22 last year.

Andrew White, mitigating, said: “It was not planned, it was a spur of the moment piece of stupidity.”

He said Taylor was a hard working joiner and plasterer who was desperate to work. He had been on remand in prison since November last year.

Mr White suggested he could be given a suspended jail sentence, but Judge Tony Briggs said there was no reason to pass such a sentence.

Jailing him for nine months, he said: “It was a mean and despicable performance and you abused a position of trust.”