Felix Hanrahan has now been jailed for 45 months
A burglar broke into an elderly woman’s home in Bradford to steal her pension money so he could spend it on drugs.
Felix Hanrahan. 46, was on prison licence for similar crimes against elderly people when he tricked his way into an 85-year-old woman’s home in Keighley, Bradford. He walked uninvited into her home on November 2, 2024, and asked her for £15 to fix her roof tiles.
Bradford Crown Court heard how the woman, who live alone following the death of her husband, wanted to call her son, but Hanrahan made his way further inside, asking her if he could use the toilet. The victim took two £10 notes out of a jam jar to get rid of him, but he grabbed the cash and took another £180 from the jar, before running away.
Of no fixed abode, Hanrahan was arrested later that night. He gave a false name to the police because he was wanted on recall to prison.
Hanrahan, who is addicted to cocaine, has previous convictions for wounding and robbery, and he was jailed for more than six years in 2020 for burglaries involving victims aged 79, 80, and 84. Recorder Tony Watkin said these offences were similar, and Hanrahan had spent a large part of his adult life in jail.
“This was an offence of exactly the same type that you had committed before in which you prey upon some of those who are the most vulnerable in our society,” he told Hanrahan over a prison video link.
“What a terrifying experience this will have been for this lady who was all alone,” said the judge.
The judge added that the offences was reprehensible, and demonstrated Hanrahan’s lack of a moral compass.
Barrister Lea Levine, for Hanrahan, said he had expressed genuine remorse and has pleaded guilty a few weeks before his trial because he did not want the complainant to come to court and give evidence.
“He was using cocaine at the time and he was in a terrible place mentally,” she told the court.
She said Harahan was “spiralling out of control” and the offence was committed to fund his addiction.
He is currently recalled to prison, and is serving a previous 78 month sentence for similar offences. He has now been jailed again for a further 45 months.
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