A SOB story fraudster who preys on the good will of vulnerable elderly people to steal their money has been jailed again.

Drug user Jemma Dean, 30, targeted two women pensioners just weeks after being released from her previous prison sentence, Bradford Crown Court heard.

Sentencing her to two years imprisonment, Judge Jonathan Rose told Dean: “There is no excuse for the dreadful offending for which you are responsible.”

Judge Rose said a significant sentence might not deter her, but it would protect the public from her preying on them.

The court heard Dean, previously of Oxley Gardens, Low Moor, Bradford, but now of no fixed address, was jailed for 16 months last year for similar offences and she had an appalling record for dishonesty offences.

She was released on licence in April from her last sentence, but prosecutor Caroline Abraham said that on May 3 she targeted a 73-year-old woman’s home in Greenacre Avenue, Wyke, Bradford. Miss Abraham said the victim answered an urgent knocking on her door. Dean was on the doorstep and said her car had broken down and asked to use the phone. The pensioner allowed her to do so. Dean said she had ordered a taxi but had no money and asked to borrow £17.50 for the fare, offering to leave her bank card with the woman.

Miss Abraham said the victim trusted the defendant to return and reimburse her. When she failed to return, the woman alerted police.

Ten days later, Dean went to an 86-year-old woman’s home in Whitehall Road, Wyke, and again claimed she had broken down and asked to use the phone. This time she said she was due to collect her children, was running late and did not have money to go home. Dean was allowed to use the phone and the pensioner agreed to lend Dean £30 for a taxi, after the fraudster said she would leave her credit card. She returned later that day, claiming her sister had a £50 note and asking for £20 change. The victim panicked and gave Dean the money.

Miss Abraham said one of the victims had described feeling upset and frightened, was unable to stay at home and had become wary of answering the door.

The prosecutor said Dean had 14 previous convictions for offences of a similar nature. She was jailed last July for three offences of defrauding pensioners by pretending she needed money for a taxi to collect her son from hospital. The court heard she had broken the heart of an 84-year-old man with her lies.

The previous February, Dean was jailed for 14 months for targeting elderly people with fake sob stories about an ill child. Dean had previously admitted identical offences, including knocking on the door of a couple at their home in Shipley and asking to borrow money after claiming her boyfriend had thrown her out of a car. Dean was sentenced by video link from Newhall Prison yesterday after she was recalled from her licence. She had pleaded guilty before magistrates to two charges of fraud by false representation and two of breaching a Criminal Behaviour Order, imposed in 2015 and which she had breached on eight occasions, and was committed to the crown court for sentence.

Judge Rose told Dean her victims were elderly people who were entitled to peace and security in their autumn years. “You see them as easy targets and you target the elderly specifically because they are decent people who would always try and help a young woman in trouble.”

Judge Rose imposed a further five-year Criminal Behaviour Order.