A frail and elderly couple had to move into a nursing home following a burglary by a notorious criminal.
Kyle Ferguson burgled the Ashfield Park caravan home of the couple in their late 80s, one of them blind, in the early hours of March 26.
The elderly couple, both suffering from dementia, had only just moved from Bridlington and bought the caravan home a few months earlier to be close to their daughter in Scunthorpe.
Ferguson, 30, of Lambourne Rise, Scunthorpe, admitted burglary and a further charge of affray and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of a semi-automatic pistol.
Prosecuting at Grimsby Crown Court, Craig Lowe said the elderly couple had retired to bed. They had moved to the Scunthorpe area to be near to their daughter who cared for them.
She visited them twice each day to help out. In addition, carers would visit four times per day - in the morning, lunchtime, evening and the middle of the night.
Mr Lowe told how, from her own home, the daughter checked the CCTV cameras at her parents' address.
The cameras were offline. But the daughter retrieved the clips from the cameras showing carers leaving the property at 2.35am. At 2.46am two males entered the caravan and walked around the property. One was wearing a full-face balaclava and the other a baseball cap with a hood up over it.
Mr Lowe said: "One of the males walked to the bedroom and noted the two complainants sleeping and put his thumbs up to the other male. Both males then took down one camera whilst continuing to look around the property. At some point the female complainant woke up and walked into the living room where the two men were. At that point they walked out of the property.
"The female complainant returned to bed and said to her husband: "Strange times. How rude, they shut the door in my face."
At about 3.03am the men re-entered the property and disconnected the internet. A CCTV camera had been ripped down and a mobile phone was stolen.
The daughter said in her victim impact statement that she was so worried a burglary could happen again so she moved her parents into a nursing home. She added she was pleased her mother could not remember what had happened in the burglary. The daughter said it scared her what might have happened.
But she said they now have to pay £40,000-a-year to be looked after in the nursing home.
She said: "The defendant has caused worry and stress to our family and the thought of him entering our parents address sickens me. My elderly parents should have been able to live the rest of their lives comfortably in the caravan." She said moving to a nursing home had put on a massive financial strain.
Mr Lowe told how police found a trace of blood at the scene and it matched the DNA profile of the defendant.
Ferguson was arrested on May 11 and made no comment in the interview with police. At a magistrates court hearing Ferguson was bailed on condition of a 7pm to 7am curfew. Humberside Police received information that he was at his parents' address in Coventry Close, Scunthorpe, at 7.20pm on May 30.
When he saw police attending the address he went on to the roof. He hurled abuse and threats to police officers. Mr Lowe said he threatened to "bite the heads off police officers". He removed a bird box and threatened to throw it at officers. A ladder was offered to the defendant to persuade him to come down. But he snatched the ladders and used them to scale on to higher roofs of terraced properties on Coventry Close.
The stand-off continued to 11.20pm, when items were thrown at police and towards the rear of one of the properties. It turned out to be a semi-automatic Lugar pistol. It was loaded. It was seized by police and examined. At 12.20am Ferguson came down from the roof and was arrested.
The stand-off lasted five hours and involved 27 police officers, Mr Lowe told the court.
He said: "That undoubtedly delayed response time to other incidents due to the lack of available staff. Many of the local residents expressed anger and frustration towards the defendant as a result of what was happening and some were prevented from entering their homes due to the danger posed by the defendant. Others were kept awake due to the defendant shouting from the roof. Children of residents were prevented from getting off to sleep due to the noise."
Ferguson has 36 convictions for 78 offences including robbery and burglary and a rooftop affray in 2017.
For Ferguson, Ian Durant said his client would like to apologise to the victims in person, but recognises that is not possible. He said his client had been assaulted with a machete earlier. He added the pistol was never brandished during the stand-off.
Judge Richard Woolfall said reading the victim impact statement of the daughter of the elderly couple had been "harrowing." He said she had promised to do everything to ensure they lived their lives independently and not have to go into care. But she felt guilty to have broken that promise, he said.
He said he had read the letter from the defendant, in which he said the ruinous impact of having to satisfy a drug habit had been removed while in custody. Judge Woolfall said: "It is as if you have had a revelation."
He jailed Ferguson for a total of nine years and 10 months.
