She cons pensioners in her pyjamas

A serial con artist scammed pensioners by asking for money while dressed in her pyjamas and claiming she had been locked out of her home, a court heard.

Charlene Nelson, 40, fooled her elderly victims with elaborate sob stories, claiming she was cold and needed their help.

The mother-of-three began her latest crime spree a month after she was let out of jail for similar offences.

She admitted six counts of fraud, totalling nearly £500 taken from pensioners, aged between 78 and 94, between 16 and 30 September this year, in Chingford, east London.

Deepak Kapur, prosecuting, said: ‘This defendant on each occasion goes and knocks on the door of the unsuspecting victims.

‘On each occasion she introduces herself as someone living down the road, she then pretends that she has been locked out for one reason or another.

‘She then goes on to say she wishes to use the phone. She persuades the victim and she states that she needs to contact her mother to get spare keys.

‘She then says to the victim she needs some money to go to her mother’s house to retrieve the set of keys and when she comes back she will repay them. On one occasion she even went so far as saying she had to pick up her children.

‘Having viewed some of the CCTV footage, one in particular she is quite persuasive. She sort of says “don’t you recognise me I live don’t he road when the complainant says no she says ‘Oh well, I had my hair done recently’.’

Nelson has previous convictions involving similar offences against the elderly and was on licence when she went on her latest spree.

The court heard Nelson struggles with drug addiction and was introduced to crack cocaine by her father when she was 13.

The judge, Ms Recorder Hannah Kinch told Nelson: ‘You went to the house of elderly victims.

‘You told each of them a story about how you have been locked out of your house.

‘On all but one occasion you were given money. On each occasion you said you would be back to return the money but of course you never did and you never intended to.

‘You are, as your counsel conceded, a good actress, how you were dressed in what appears to be pyjamas and acting as if you were cold.

‘Some of the victims have made personal statements. The same themes emerge, they feel unsafe in their homes, they feel suspicious of people at their door, some of them blame themselves for believing you, they have been made to feel foolish.

‘All of them speak of having reduced confidence, some are now anxious about leaving the house and some have described the measures that they have taken to feel more secure.

‘It is quite clear to me that you did deliberately target elederly victims in their own homes, I have no doubt about that.

‘Whilst I accept that perhaps the number of victims is not the largest, clearly there are multiple victims in this case and the offending did take place over a fairly sustained period of time.

‘Whilst I accept that I don’t know the full details of every previous conviction, the details I do know point very clearly towards a tendency on your part to steal from elderly victims and I have no doubt that that was entirely deliberate.

‘You hadn’t been long released on licence when you committed these six offences, you have been released around a month if that, that is a highly aggravating factor in this case.’

Nelson, of Chingford, admitted six charges of fraud.

She was jailed for three years, concurrent on each charge, and ordered to pay a court surcharge of £190.