WICKED “sob story fraudster” Jemma Dean has been jailed for three years and nine months for a new string of offences targeting elderly and vulnerable people in Bradford.

Dean, 32, the mother of three children, wept in the dock as the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC told her: “You pose a very serious risk and you prey on the elderly and you hurt them.

“The public would be incensed, quite rightly, if I did not impose a sentence that reflects your wickedness and protects the elderly.”

Dean appeared for sentence from custody at Bradford Crown Court today after pleading guilty to two burglaries, an attempted burglary, fraud by false representation, theft from a dwelling and five breaches of a Criminal Behaviour Order.

Prosecutor Ken Green said Dean, of Oxley Gardens, Low Moor, Bradford, had a history of similar offending. She had been jailed in the past and the court order barred her from attending anyone’s home to borrow money.

But on January 10, Dean struck again, targeting warden-aided flats in Wyke at 9.30pm.

She knocked on the door of a man aged 72 and asked to use his phone. He didn’t have one, so he offered to take her to another flat.

Dean then targeted another address in the complex, knocking on a 90-year-old man’s door and getting him out of bed. She “told a tale of woe,” saying she was desperate for money.

Mr Green said the pensioner felt intimidated and pointed to a Tupperware box in the kitchen. Dean took two £10 notes out of it, made a call from his landline and left. He was “shaken and upset” when he told the warden what had happened the next morning.

Just after midnight on January 11, Dean called on a man aged 76 at the same flats complex. She said her car had broken down, she was worried about her grandad and she needed money to collect her children. The man, who lent her £20 for a taxi, was left feeling insecure and vulnerable.

On January 13, Dean was arrested by the police and admitted all the offences, blaming her drug addiction.

She was released under investigation and at 3pm on February 6, Dean knocked on the back door at an 81-year-old man’s home. She told a sob story about her car breaking down and needing money to collect her children.

The man loaned her £15 but Dean, who never gave back the money, had let slip the surname of her children.

Her final offences began on February 20 when she targeted a 59-year-old disabled woman at 1.30am. The woman was woken by Dean banging on the door and ringing the bell. She said her grandma had been rushed to hospital and her car had broken down.

She was lent £20 for a taxi to Bradford Royal Infirmary, promising to pay back the money.

Dean returned the next day and paid back the £20, stealing £60 from the woman’s purse when she went to make her a coffee.

“The defendant had the audacity to return the same night, banging on the door and ringing the bell, but the woman’s sister told her to go away,” Mr Green said.

The woman was left struggling to trust people again.

Dean’s barrister, Ayesha Smart, said she had mental health issues and took drugs to cope.

She had shown genuine remorse and written a letter of apology to the judge.

“She is truly and deeply ashamed of her behaviour,” Miss Smart said. “She is craving help to break the drug habit.”

Dean had been left traumatised by an abusive and violent relationship and she had been spending £20 a day on crack cocaine and heroin. She had been in custody for four months.

Judge Durham Hall said Dean had an appalling record for "dreadful offences" arising out of her drug addiction.

Over the years, the courts had tried many times to help her, with “well-intentioned but utterly misplaced generosity,” he added.