A BURGLAR who ransacked a charity shop in Caldicot town centre has been jailed for 34 weeks.

Richard David Simmonds, 35, horrified the local community when he raided the St David's Hospice Care shop, in Newport Road, Caldicot, on Thursday, May 9.

The shop raises money for the charity's work helping people with cancer and other serious illnesses.

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Simmonds was jailed at Newport Magistrates' Court last Friday after pleading guilty to that break-in, and another, in November, at The Cellar Bar and Kitchen in Caldicot's Newport Road.

As reported in the Argus in May, volunteers at the St David's shop were heartbroken to find parts of the store "turned upside-down" and "spattered" with blood following the overnight break-in.

A door had been damaged and tools were found abandoned next to the shop's safe when workers arrived at the shop the following morning.

“It’s unbelievable that anyone would target a charity shop such as ours, that supports their local community and people at the ends of their lives," shop manager Charmaine Fuller said at the time.

And the charity's deputy chief executive, Adrian Hadley, told the Argus in May that he "struggle[d] to comprehend the mentality of a person or people who can target a charity shop such as ours in this way".

Simmonds also stole more than £500 in cash when he broke into The Cellar on Sunday, November 17.

Once inside the restaurant, Simmonds raided a fruit machine, four charity collection boxes, and two staff tip jars.

At the time, the owners of The Cellar said on social media that they had been "totally devastated" by the break-in.

Simmonds was jailed for 34 weeks and must also pay a victim surcharge of £122.