A JUDGE demanded a review into council vetting procedures after a convicted thief got a job as a binman - and stole from a 92-year-old with Alzheimer's.

Recorder Philip Butler jailed Daniel Reid, 20, of Malvern Avenue, Hapton, for two years, and then criticised Pendle Council who he said given the defendant a "cloak of respectability" to commit crime.

Reid had 21 previous convictions, including for offences of dishonesty including theft and burglary, but neither the council nor the agency which employed him on behalf of the local authority carried out a criminal records check.

And Reid, who the judge said was mean and despicable, went on to use his role as a binman to target and steal from the vulnerable pensioner he met on his rounds in Nelson.

The leader of Pendle Council, Coun Alan Davies, said that the criminal records checks could not be carried out against Reid as he did not fulfil the criteria of working with children.

But a Home Office spokesman said that Pendle Council's stance was wrong and that they or the agency could have looked into Reid's criminal history if they had wanted.

When the Home Office's statement was put to the council, Coun Davies refused to comment.

The council also declined to reveal the details of the agency which had employed Reid and refused to give a reason for that decision.

Recorder Butler said it wasn't the council's fault Reid was taken on with a criminal record, but if he was provided by an agency then the agency should have checked.

And he ordered the council to clean up its act, adding: "Perhaps the council will be looking at its procedures".

David Pickup, prosecuting, told the court the pensioner, who has since died, had been looked after by her son and carers at her Williams Place home.

Her son would leave money in a container for the carers to do shopping and in February he became aware cash was going missing.

The son installed CCTV and also a keylock so his mother was locked in, but had her own key.

CCTV footage showed Reid shouting through the window, successfully persuading the pensioner to pass her key through the letterbox.

In March £14 was taken and police scenes of crimes officers found Reid's fingerprints on the tupperware container the money was left in.

Officers left a container with perfectly clean glass and £10 in it and the defendant turned up and took the money.

Reid pleaded guilty to two theft charges involving £34 in March and was also re-sentenced after admitting breaching a community order imposed for five previous convictions for theft.

John Woodward, defending, said Reid had been on drink and drugs detoxification courses whilst in prison and "hopes very much to have learned his lesson."

After the case Coun Davies said: "Daniel Reid worked for a local agency that provides relief staff for Pendle Council.

"The agency he worked for have shown us that they do carry out all the necessary checks which they are allowed to do by law.

"They do ask all agency employees about any criminal convictions including any spent convictions and they do get two previous workplace references.

"Police checks must be carried out for jobs where people are working with children, such as park keepers. However, the law does not allow police checks to be carried out on jobs such as refuse collection."

But a spokesman for the Home Office, which carry out CRB checks added: "We only carry out criminal record bureau (CRB) checks but we do not say who has to be checked.

"There is nothing to stop employers when someone applies for a job checking their criminal record with the police rather than a CRB check.

"The onus is on the employer."