A "PERSISTENT" Stourbridge crook who tried to pocket £200 from a 97-year-old man by pretending he had carried out repair work on guttering at his home has been locked up for 13 months.

Judge Amjad Nawaz at Wolverhampton Crown Court said it was clear Shaun McGarrick had taken advantage of the vulnerable pensioner after earlier doing "good work" on the property.

He said the 34-year-old father-of-five pretended to work on the guttering without the consent of the pensioner and then, after police had been notified, he assaulted an officer in his bid to escape.

The officer was struck on the side of his head by McGarrick as the two men struggled, said the judge.

He told McGarrick, of Vicars Walk, Pedmore: "Police and others in uniform do not deserve to be treated in this way."

McGarrick, who has 60 previous offences on his criminal record, admitted fraud by false representation and assaulting a police officer.

Paul Spratt, prosecuting, that McGarrick had worked for the pensioner before to a "good standard" but he then sought to operate the scam.

He said he noticed guttering on the man's Stourbridge home was leaking - a job that would have taken just minutes to correct - but he then spent two hours pretending to carry out a much bigger task.

McGarrick then told the pensioner the work would cost £200 but the old man refused to pay for a job he had not requested before the bill came down to £100 which he again refused to pay.

The police were notified and when an officer saw McGarrick walking away from the scene he told him he was under arrest. He then tried handcuff McGarrick who struck him on the head causing some pain and discomfort.

Stephen Hamblett, defending, told the court that McGarrick was full of remorse for his actions and he accepted he had done wrong. "At the time he was struggling financially," he concluded.

The judge ruled only immediate imprisonment was appropriate for the two crimes as he told McGarrick his record showed he had a "criminally entrenched background."