A man has been jailed following a spate of burglaries after pretending to be pest control.

David Payne targeted elderly and vulnerable Birmingham residents and tried to trick them into believing their house or garden was infested with rats.

The 42-year-old, from Pencroft Road, Birmingham, posed as an employee from an environmental team working for the local council, and tried to pressure his victims into handing over cash for unneeded work with threats of a large fine. After tricking his way into the homes he rifled through personal belongings, stole cash and jewellery, and took payment or bank card details for work that never needed doing.

Officers investigating the trend across the city over three months made a breakthrough after the offender’s image was captured in an internal camera at one of the homes. This image was submitted for a facial recognition search against the Police National Database. It came back with matches, including to David Payne who had offences from three years ago.

Payne initially denied his involvement in any of the offences – but with the help of colleagues from the ID bureau he was picked out of an ID parade three times, leading to him pleading guilty to these three offences.

He was charged with 12 offences in total, and convicted of three burglaries, one attempted burglary and two counts of fraud by false representation.

On 9 May (Thurs) he was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court to three years and eight months.