A JUDGE has said he believes a fraudster who told him she can't sell her second home in South Africa to repay her dementia suffering victim.

And his ruling means the 91-year-old dementia sufferer could miss out on more than £20,000 in compensation from her former carer.

Lolita Reid was trying to stop the authorities confiscating the £35,100 property left to her by her late father by claiming his partner of 20 years had a claim over it.

The light fingered care worker, who fleeced her elderly said his will gave her the house but allowed her step mum to live off the income from renting it out.

Despite failing to provide any documentation to back up what she said Judge Peter Blair QC took her on her word after she gave evidence at Swindon Crown Court.

He ruled that the value of the 45-year-old's interest in the house was just one fifth of what was being claimed.

His decision means her dementia suffering victim will miss out on thousands in compensation which would have gone to her.

The judge found that she benefitted from crime to the tune of £163,147.96p but only had realisable assets of £15,420.

That sum is made up in £8,100 equity in a house in Freshbrook, £300 from a car and the £7,020 value from the property in her homeland.

He gave her three months to pay the sum or face a nine month sentence, though he pointed out she could ask for an extension to pay if she is struggling to get the cash.

And he also ordered that the money should be paid as compensation to the victim as the Co-op Bank had not reimbursed her for the money taken from her account.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, said that she had been left £36,710 out of pocket after the other bank, the NatWest had repaid what was taken.

Giving evidence from the witness box Reid, who six months into a 33 month jail term, said she had done all she could to prove her claims.

"I have been as honest as I possibly can since the beginning because I can't lie about anything," the convicted fraudster said.

"I even agreed to sell it for the amount. I will only do it when she passes away. I have even said I will tell them when that happens."

She said the title deeds for the property are in a bank in Durban but because she was behind bars she could not get hold of them.

No copy of the will has ever been produced before the court or any legal documents showing that her step mum has any claim over it.

Ruling in her favour the judge said: "I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that she had told me the truth about there being this person having a life interest."

However he said that even though that is the case her ownership of the house still had a value, which could be sold, and he put that at £7,020.

Reid was being paid as a carer to visit the old lady for 15 minutes each weekday morning and evening when she started to steal from her.

The victim trusted her home help with the PIN numbers on bank cards but Reid abused that to siphon off cash for her herself.

When she was meant to be getting out £20 she would withdraw £200 and keep the rest for her drink and gambling habits.

It only came to light in 2012 when the pensioner started having financial problems and a senior social worker said she believed the crime had accelerated her dementia.

She said the woman who had always been independent, had been left feeling 'powerless and ignorant' believing she must be imagining her money disappearing.

Reid, now of Winterbourne Kingston, Dorset, pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud between October 2009 and the end of 2012.