Woman tried to force terrified 82-year-old to hand over bank card in her own Leeds home

Charmaine Grimshaw was only stopped when a support worker happened to visit the elderly lady and intervened.

Grimshaw was jailed at Leeds Crown Court after admitting robbery, along with several other offences.

On November 2 last year, the support worker had gone to the pensioner’s address on Broadlea Terrace in Kirkstall, arriving at around 8pm. Having entered the address, she found 38-year-old Grimshaw grabbing the frail woman, demanding cash and her bank card.

The worker intervened and told Grimshaw she needed to leave. Grimshaw grabbed the jacket of the worker who pushed her away. She continued to be aggressive but eventually left. She was arrested a short time later.

During her police interview, Grimshaw said she knew the elderly woman’s grandson and had borrowed £20 from him previously. She said she wanted money to get home, and wanted to transfer £100 to the woman’s account and then withdraw it. She denied being aggressive and assaulting the support worker.

She later admitted a charge of robbery and assault. But Grimshaw also faced charges of assaulting an emergency worker from October when she kicked an officer in the shins, and a charge of ABH from late November last year. On that occasion, she accused a woman of stealing money at a shared house she had been temporarily staying at, on Broadlea Oval in Bramley.

She punched the woman to the face and aimed kicks to her body and face. Grimshaw, previously of Broadlea Crescent, Bramley, and Burnleys View, Methley, has nine previous convictions for 13 offences.

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Mitigating, Mark Foley said of the robbery charge: “The defendant has always said she knew this lady through her grandson so it was not entirely a stranger.”

He said she was a mother of five and and had only started offending when she was 35, having been introduced to drugs and the “criminal community” by a former partner.

He added: “She recognises her behaviour is related to her drug use. She tells me she is ashamed of her behaviour. Although there are no excuses, she has had a tough life.”

The judge, Recorder Bryan Cox KC, jailed her for 48 months.