AN Iranian woman who was befriended by an elderly couple when she arrived in the UK fleeced them of their life savings, a court heard.

Raheleh Azimi, 21, was guilty of the ‘dreadful betrayal’ of Philip and Jennifer Powley, from Swindon, who had ‘shown her nothing but kindness,’ a judge said.

Azimi cried constantly in the dock at St Albans Crown Court, where she sat for sentencing alongside her Iranian boyfriend, Hamed Ranjbar.

Prosecutor Charles Digby said Azimi came to the UK in 2002 with her father. They were befriended by the Powley family.

But from 2011 she began to lie to them and asked for money for a variety of bogus reasons.

In all, she took £114,543 from the couple.

She got money for the rent of fictitious flats to pay to fictitious landladies, for cars, plane tickets, travel documents, fees for Southgate College in London where the courses were free and money for a mortgage on the home she shared with Ranjbar in Potters Bar, even though it was rented.

The police were alerted after she said she needed £50,000 for an insurance claim, said the prosecutor.

Raheleh Azimi and Hamed Ranjbar, both of Sandringham Road, Potters Bar, appeared for sentencing. She admitted 13 counts of fraud. He was convicted of two counts of fraud.

Judge Mark Dennis QC jailed Azimi for two-and-a-half years, telling her: “It was a dreadful betrayal.”

He said Ranjbar had also taken advantage of two elderly people, and sentenced him to six months in jail suspended for two years and ordered him to complete 200 hours’ unpaid work.

The judge made an indefinite restriction order banning either defendant from contacting Philip or Jennifer Powley or going to their address in Swindon.