Couple posed as Window Cleaners to burgle and rob elderly residents in Blyth

🟢 A couple who posed as a window cleaner to target elderly residents in Blyth have been jailed.

Margaret Brown, 40, of Allensgreen, Cramlington, and her partner Matthew Thain, 34, knocked on the doors of elderly women offering to clean windows or cut grass, then used excuses to enter their homes.

In one case, they entered the home of an 86-year-old woman after she gave Thain £10 for window cleaning and later £20 for gardening. Brown asked for tea while Thain went into the bedroom. The woman’s family arrived and confronted them—but not before her purse, containing £130, had been stolen.

Thain was jailed in September for 3 years and 6 months. Brown, who admitted two burglary charges, claimed she didn’t steal anything but was present. The court heard she had stayed out of trouble for 15 years until entering a relationship with Thain. She is now drug-free in prison.

An indefinite restraining order was also imposed.