A grandson who bombarded his octogenarian granny with requests for cash has been jailed.

Sending Michael Ward down for two-and-a-half years, Recorder John Hardy QC branded the 33-year-old’s crimes ‘despicable and repugnant’.

Oxford Crown Court was told that Ward began calling his 82-year-old grandmother with demands for cash on November 3 last year, shortly after coming out of prison from doing exactly that.

He was originally made subject to a restraining order in 2018 banning him from contacting his grandma or going to her home in Harwell. The order was renewed in 2020, when he was jailed for bombarding the elderly couple with requests for money and labelled a ‘parasite’ by an Oxford judge.

Ward was said to have scammed more than £1,400 out of his grandmother last November before he was recalled to prison by the probation service.

Despite calls to his grandmother’s home supposedly blocked by the prison service, Ward managed to use an interim telephone card to make nine calls to her between November 22 and 23. He asked for cash for trainers and to allow him to go to the prison gym. On Friday, the judge dealing with the case said of the fact the defendant was able to make the calls: “The mind boggles.”

Ward was released from jail on December 9 and continued to pepper her with calls. The demands for cash continued in spite of his sister and police officers telling him to stop when they picked up the phone during visits to the grandmother’s home in December.

The sister said in a statement that the calls were causing her grandma ‘so much grief’. “She’s heartbroken and emotionally exhausted.”

At the magistrates’ court last month, the grandmother said in a statement read to the court: “It hurts me so much I’ve had to speak to the police about this again. I feel so bad for Michael, guilty about dobbing him in.”

Ward, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty in January to breaching a restraining order and harassment.

 

Michael Wards custody shot Picture: TVP

Michael Ward's custody shot Picture: TVP

 

Jailing him for 30 months, Recorder John Hardy QC told Ward: “It’s true that you have some misfortunes in your personal life. You are homeless when you are at liberty and you are a class A drug addict. Ordinarily this court would be sympathetic for those difficulties.

“Instead, you seek to transfer your pain onto your 82-year-old grandmother in the most despicable way imaginable.

“Your offences are absolutely repugnant and all deserve the severest punishment the court can impose.”

He added: “When you – if you – ever become elderly, Mr Ward, and are blessed with grandchildren – if you are – I do hope that they won’t behave as you have behaved to your grandmother.”

Richard Davies, mitigating, said his client had struggled with homelessness and drug addiction. “There is an apology from the defendant. He is remorseful for this. He knows he shouldn’t be doing it. He knows that order is in place for a reason and if he continues to breach it he will be back in prison.”

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