A MAN who followed an 85-year-old woman from a bank and then robbed her, breaking her hip in the process, has been jailed for 20 months.

Carlos Castro de Veiga watched the frail pensioner take out £110 in cash from the bank in High Street, Hawick, and carried out the sickening attack in the Wellington Court area of the town last month.

The 33-year-old Portuguese national seized her by the body and pulled her to the ground to her severe injury around noon on Thursday, June 12, and then robbed her of her handbag containing grocery items and £110 in cash.

The victim suffered a broken hip after falling during the attack and had to be taken to Borders General Hospital near Melrose, for treatment.

At Selkirk Sheriff Court on Monday, de Viega - who pleaded guilty on indictment to a charge of assaulting the pensioner to her severe injury and robbing her - was told he had carried out “a cowardly attack” for “pure greed” purposes.

Defence lawyer Ross Dow said the father-of-three had told his partner he was working for pride reasons and was short of funds. He explained: “He did not wish to tell her the truth. He saw this elderly lady draw money in the bank and, without thinking of the consequences for the lady and him, snatched the handbag and the contents.

“He did not mean for her to fall and cause her severe injury and has asked repeatedly how she is. He remains devastated that he would carry out such a cruel act of violence.” Mr Dow explained that de Veiga, of Allars Bank, Hawick, had been in the UK for the past decade and his long-term partner had ended their relationship when she found out about the offence. He added that a prison sentence was inevitable.

Sheriff Peter Paterson said: “This was a cowardly attack on an elderly woman. It had traumatic consequences for her and will have consequences for the rest of her life. It was pure greed on your part and there has to be a significant prison sentence.” He imposed a 30 month prison sentence, reduced to 20 months due to the guilty plea, backdated to June 13, when he was remanded in custody.

But Sheriff Paterson said he would not recommend to the Home Office deportation of de Veiga as he had been in the UK since 2004 and had an established family life here.