A “DESPICABLE” burglar who stole £600 in cash from a foodbank and charity boxes from a pub has been jailed.

Tyrone Gibson targeted Newport Foodbank in the city centre and the Windsor Castle next door when it was closed during the early days of lockdown.

Prosecutor Margaret Cunningham said the defendant caused “significant loss” to his victims after the break-ins in April.

Gibson caused £1,280 of damage to the pub after smashing his way in through a window and ripping the fire alarm system off the wall.

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Newport Magistrates’ Court heard how he took the cash after he broke into a safe at the foodbank on Corn Street.

The amount of money taken that was in the charity boxes is unknown.

Ms Cunningham said: “Scenes of crime officers attended and a blood sample analysed at the Windsor Castle was matched to this defendant.”

He also left a crowbar in a box of sweets at the foodbank.

Gibson, 42, of no fixed abode, Newport, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary, committed on April 17.

The court was told he has a “significant record” of previous convictions including a number of burglaries.

He was jailed for 10 months in April for two burglaries at Newport’s Riverside Sports Bar and Kitchen on Clarence Place at USA Chicken in Skinner Street around the same time.

Cardiff Magistrates’ Court heard how Gibson had “ransacked” the Riverside Sports Bar and Kitchen on Monday and got away with £420 of goods in the USA Chicken raid.

Scott Bowen, mitigating for Gibson for the Windsor Castle and Newport Foodbank burglaries, asked magistrates to take into account his client’s early guilty pleas.

He added: “The defendant was homeless at the time of these offences and had no support for his mental health problems and drug addiction.”

Chair of the magistrates, Lynne Tippett, told Gibson: “This was a despicable crime. You stole charity boxes and money from a foodbank for vulnerable people during a pandemic.

“This was probably one of the worst things you could do.”

The defendant was jailed for 32 weeks and ordered to pay £1,880 in compensation to his victims.