A “callous and greedy” couple who plundered more than £30,000 from the bank accounts of a frail and sickly old woman were today behind bars.

Jean Beaumont, 81, was a comfortably-off widow, who enjoyed foreign travel, before she was befriended by her neighbours, Michelle Cooper and Mark Boyd Smith, Bradford Crown Court heard.

The pair systematically stripped her of her life savings, spending the cash on holidays to Amsterdam and Spain, clothes, hire cars, beauty products and expensive jewellery.

Cooper, 29, was asked by Judge Peter Benson what she was smiling about as he sentenced her to five years in prison yesterday.

Boyd Smith, 48, was jailed for two and a half years.

Both pleaded guilty to seven offences of fraud. Smith admitted having £5,500 of Mrs Beaumont’s money as criminal property.

Cooper, of Thornton Road, Bradford, was also sentenced for drug dealing on bail.

Prosecutor Ken Green said Mrs Beaumont had lived alone in Stephenson Street, Great Horton, Bradford.

She suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure. Her memory was becoming very poor and she would forget to take her medication.

But she owned her own home, had savings in numerous bank accounts and enjoyed up to three foreign holidays a year.

Cooper and Boyd Smith, who lived together on the same street, befriended her in 2006.

“Both defendants used their friendship to gain her trust and then abused that trust in a calculated and cynical fashion,” Mr Green said.

Mrs Beaumont, who was childless, had left her estate to her niece and nephew.

But, in December 2006, she made a new will cutting them out and leaving almost everything to Cooper and Boyd Smith.

In March, 2007, the couple became Mrs Beaumont’s joint attorneys, with authority to manage all her financial affairs and properties. Three months later, they applied to the Court of Protection, saying Mrs Beaumont was mentally incapable of looking after her affairs.

Mr Green said Mrs Beaumont continued to deteriorate mentally.

On May 19, 2008, Bradford social services received an anonymous phone call expressing concern about her health.

Staff entered Mrs Beaumont’s home and found her in a soiled bed in a cluttered and dirty room. She had lost weight and there was very little food in the house. She was dehydrated and her hair was unkempt.

“She was confused, unsteady and barely able to stand,” Mr Green said.

Mrs Beaumont was placed in emergency care in a residential home and a police investigation began.

Cooper and Boyd Smith were arrested in June, 2008.

Cooper made no reply to police questions and was bailed.

Mr Green told the court that the very next day she used Mrs Beaumont’s credit card to buy £850 of jewellery.

Mr Green said that in October 2008, Cooper was caught street drug dealing in Manningham.

She was convicted by a jury of possessing heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply.

Boyd Smith’s barrister, Stephen Wood, said he had done work for her round the house and did not set out to defraud her. He was very remorseful and had been frank with the police.

“He was unable to stop his drug-abusing partner from taking funds. He did not stop her. He is guilty,” Mr Wood said.

Boyd Smith, of Horton Park Avenue, Bradford, wept in the dock as Mr Wood told the judge he knew he was going to jail.

Cooper’s barrister, Yunus Valli, said she had also helped Mrs Beaumont around the house.

She had lost her home and her job and ended up in a bail hostel.

Cooper had lacked judgement and been through exceptional stress.

Judge Benson jailed her for three years for fraud and two years on top for the drugs offences.

He told Cooper and Boyd Smith they treated Mrs Beamont’s savings as their own personal bank, except they did not have to pay in any deposits.

“The courts must protect vulnerable people, particularly the elderly, from the ravages of dishonest people like you,” Judge Benson said.

He branded the pair “mean, callous, greedy and selfish.”

After the case, Detective Sergeant Simon Pridgeon, of the Bradford South Proceeds of Crime Unit, said: “This was a particularly despicable and disturbing case where both Cooper and Smith had befriended an 81-year-old woman and exploited her for their own financial gain.

“They were expected to act in her best interests and instead plundered her financial assets.”