A 38-year-old Newent man who robbed an elderly woman in the town after seeing her withdraw money from the post office, has been warned he faces a jail term.

Paul Hale, of Lightfoot, Newent pleaded guilty at Gloucester crown court yesterday to robbing Janet Davis of bank cards and £800 in cash on 28th January this year.

Defence lawyer, Lloyd Jenkins, said Hale 'concedes it was a mean spirited offence'.

"He was a drug addict at the time," Mr Jenkins added. "He owed his dealer £1,000."

The lawyer described the robbery as 'minimum force, no weapon used, and completely opportunist'.

The judge, Recorder Paul Grumbar, ordered the preparation of a pre-sentence report and fixed the sentence date for 8th March.

"There are things to be said," Recorder Grumbar noted. "There are no promises, but he has done himself an enormous favour pleading guilty today."

He told Hale: "You will get a very substantial reduction in your sentence.

"You have made the right decision today to save this lady coming to court."