A MANIPULATIVE burglar who targeted pensioners in their own homes with a series of sob stories has been jailed.

Shelley Corless preyed on the trusting nature of the senior citizens to get into their bungalows by claiming she was pregnant and needed the toilet or to make a phone call.

But when the victims, one who was in her eighties, had their backs turned she swiped their pension money and fled.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the spate of offences took place in Park North last July.

He said the first victim, an 85-year-old who lives alone on Penrose Walk, was at home when Corless knocked on the door saying she desperately needed the toilet.

After letting her in the defendant went in to the lavatory, but never used it, then came out and started talking about selling the old lady some whisky.

Corless then shot out of the house and victim realised her handbag, containing the last £15 of her pension was gone.

A couple of days later she went to a neighbour of her first victim and asked if she could use the telephone.

To get the victim out of the room she also asked for a glass of water and when the 73-year-old returned she saw Corless had picked up her handbag.

She told her to put it back but the thief insisted it was hers and fled with the bag which was later recovered without the £60 pension which had been in it.

On the same day she went to the home of a neighbour on Dulverton Avenue and stole £35 from a man who lived there, as well as his antidepressants.

The last offence took place the following day when she knocked on a pensioner’s door on Priory Road at 10pm saying she was pregnant and her car had broken down. She asked if she could use the phone and after failing to get through on the numbers the elderly woman made her a cup of coffee.

But when the defendant left she realised that a £10 note and some change was missing from her purse. As a result of the burglaries Mr Meeke said that the targets all felt they had been foolish for letting her in.

Corless, of Dulverton Avenue, pleaded guilty to four counts of burglary.

The court heard she had a history of crime and was jailed in 2003 after she bit a 76-year-old lady as she robbed her in the street.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client had been out of trouble since 2009 but had relapsed into using crack cocaine trying to steal prescription drugs.

Jailing her for three years, Judge Peter Blair QC said “You have written me a letter which I have read carefully.

“I don’t accept everything that you say, talking of this as mistakes when you were not thinking straight rather underplays the level of deception you used to gain entry to these people’s homes.

“I can do nothing but conclude that you targeted people in that age range because of their vulnerability.”