How do you turn $84,000 in heirloom jewelry into $2,500 in cold hard cash?

Ask Warren Osesky. He might tell you all it takes is a trusting homeowner, sticky fingers and a dash of drug-driven desperation.

In September 2007 Osesky was working as a contractor's assistant helping renovate a Selkirk couple's en-suite bathroom when he pocketed nearly 60 pieces of jewelry he found in a night table.

Osesky pawned several pieces of jewelry and sold others on the street, netting himself $2,500, which he quickly spent on cocaine.

Sometime earlier, while working in Winnipeg, Osesky stole a credit card from a Wellington Crescent job site and ran up $900 in expenses. Police identified him as a suspect through security video footage and later used it to connect him to the Selkirk theft.

Osesky's drug habit "has cost him dearly in all areas of his life," his lawyer Aaron Seib said at a sentencing hearing Wednesday.

"It has cost him employment, it has cost him relationships and now it is costing him his freedom."

Osesky, 43, pleaded guilty to theft and fraud and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Court heard he had a shot at a conditional sentence but blew it when he repeatedly failed to show up for sentencing and went back to using drugs.

"He was trying to put together restitution to the best of his abilities," Seib said. "Unfortunately, that created a great deal of stress in his life and that is what led to the relapse."

Osesky blamed his crimes on his 17-year-long drug addiction but Judge Linda Giesbrecht said that excuse is getting old.

"At some point that isn't an excuse anymore," she said. "You are an adult. I hear this all the time from people much younger than you. It has to be made very clear at some point you are responsible for your actions."

dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca