A LEIGH couple in their 80s were subjected to a terrifying ordeal at the hands of a bogus policeman, Bolton Crown Court was told.

Posing as a police officer, Mark Stock, 22, of Tennyson Avenue, Leigh, tricked his way in to the home of Dr and Mrs William Sasse of Westleigh Lane, Leigh.

He pretended to be checking car registrations, but he attacked Dr Sasse and tied him up and gagged him in the garage.

Then he did the same to Mrs Sasse in the house, Charlotte Holland, prosecuting, stated.

Stock then drove away the couple's Micra car which he took to a Bolton garage, where he exchanged it for a Mondeo. He drove off before the transfer documents could be completed.

It was not until five hours later the elderly couple were released from their bonds when police came to the house. For Stock, who pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary and false imprisonment, Mr John Bromley-Davenport said the bizarre crime was first discovered when staff at the garage notified police that a customer had driven off in the Mondeo without completing the paperwork.

Police went to the house and found the old couple bound and gagged.

He said Stock's family, reading about the incident in the local paper, became suspicious of a strange car parked at their house and contacted the police.

He said Stock had a harrowing job, attending the scene of car accidents and was subject to bouts of depression which were intensified when Stock's girlfriend rejected him.

Eventually Stock was taken to court accused of harassment by his ex-girlfriend.

It was after attending court on the morning of July 22 last year that Stock committed the crimes at the house of Dr and Mrs Sasse in the afternoon, he said.

Mr Bromley-Davenport added that his client was basically a decent young man whose need for medical help had not been recognised. He submitted a 25 page letter written by Stock to recorder Richard Brittain.

The recorder said that Stock had subjected the elderly couple to a dreadful ordeal which had to be recognised with a lengthy prison sentence. He sent Stock to prison for five years.

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