A DRUG addict prostitute robbed an 87-year-old man in his sheltered housing flat after thinking she was visiting a client to provide sexual services.

Carla Range was "buzzed" into the pensioner's home because he believed he was letting in a member of his care team, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

Range, 47, and "other ladies" were invited to the flat in Manningham, Bradford, by the previous occupant.

When she saw her vulnerable victim was not her client, she offered him sexual services and he declined, prosecutor Andrew Stranex said.

Range asked the pensioner for a glass of water so she could sneak some cash from him.

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She then grabbed him by the neck and seized £40 as they tussled, Mr Stranex said.

Range, of Carton Court, West Bowling, Bradford, pleaded guilty to robbery on August 29 last year and was jailed for three and a half years.

The court heard that her victim had mental and physical problems and had recently moved flats at the complex after being discharged from hospital.

He tried to grab Range by the leg as she fled and staff found him in the lobby, breathless and distressed.

He suffered bruising in the robbery, although Range claimed that he struck her in the face.

Range, who got away in a waiting car, was heard to say: "He doesn't live here any more," Mr Stranex said.

He told the court there had been problems with prostitutes visiting another man at the complex, but never the robbery victim.

Range was caught on CCTV entering the flat and she left her earrings behind, enabling the police to trace her through DNA.

She had previous convictions for theft from the person, robbery, burglary, drugs offences and loitering for the purposes of prostitution.

In 2004, she stole a phone from a man in a wheelchair, Mr Stranex said.

Range's solicitor advocate, Ray Singh, said she was a regular visitor to the sheltered housing complex. She and other ladies had been invited round to provide sexual services to one occupant.

On the day of the robbery, the flat door was open and she walked in.

When she realised it was the wrong man there was a tussle and the pensioner punched or pushed her in the face.

"She came off significantly worse than the complainant and left with her tail between her legs and £30 or £40," Mr Singh said.

Range, who took a huge bright pink suitcase to the cells with her, had "behaved impeccably" in the eight months since the offence, the court heard.

But jailing her Judge David Hatton QC said: "Robbery in the home, particularly in the home of elderly folk, is a despicable offence."