TWO MEN who ransacked an elderly women’s countryside home near Andover, stealing jewellery and family heirlooms worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, will have to pay back just £1 each.

Eriks Valants, 23, and Jed Martin, 27, bound the 72-year-old woman to her stairs and threw a pillowcase over her head while they rifled through her house in the quaint village of Leckford.

They stole cash and jewellery valued at a total of £231,146 including a Cartier ring, an Omega watch, a three-string pearl necklace, and the victim’s father-in-law’s Military Cross medal from the Second World War, with a letter signed by King George. The items were never recovered.

But a court hearing last week heard the amount available to be recovered from them was zero - so a nominal amount of £1 was imposed instead.

The duo’s elderly victim, Susan Hunt, was woken by masked men at around 2.30am, shining a torch at her face and asking her for the code for her safe. At the sentencing, Andrew Houston, prosecuting, said that Mrs Hunt said it “felt like hours” that they were in her home, which left her feeling “traumatised, disoriented and scared”.

Each were jailed for ten years earlier this year after they admitted to robbery.

You can read the full story in this week's paper. Also in this week’s edition:

  • Andover residents are now able to make multiple visits to their local tip per week, the council has confirmed.
  • The St Mary's Church bell ringers have returned for their first frull practice since the bells were silenced in March 2020.
  • An Andover woman has raised £2,000 for Enham Trust after completing her fifth London Marathon last Sunday.
  • A parish council has submitted an application to restore a grade II listed war memorial, to ensure it “looks its best” as it stands pride of place on the village green.
  • Policing minister Kit Malthouse said the police will have to work hard to rebuild public confidence following the murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens.
  • An Andover councillor has renewed her calls for enhanced night time street lights in the town following an announcement by Boris Johnson of £25 million to make streets safer.
  • An Andover pub landlord, who was forced to close one of his businesses due to the pandemic, is now facing a further financial crisis after Hampshire Highways denied his request to increase the pub’s serving capacity.
  • A dangerous man who robbed an elderly woman of her possessions and her independence when he raped her more than 40 years ago has been jailed for 15 years.
  • PLUS: Two pages of YOUR letters
  • PICTURES: Camera Club members capture nature at its finest
  • Our monthly farming column
  • An eight-page puzzle special
  • Entertainment news
  • Sports news
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