A CROOK posed as a nurse to gain access to an elderly woman’s home before stealing bank cards from her purse.

Katie Waters, 37, offered to help care for a man’s mother after meeting him in a pub.

The man said that his diabetic mother, aged in her 80s, was struggling after the amount of care she received was cut.

Waters, also known as Katie Lane, began to visit the woman in the evenings and helped out - but noticed the woman kept her handbag and purse close by.

On June 29 last year, Waters knocked on the door of the home at 9am and instructed the woman she needed to speak to her son.

The woman let her in and went into the kitchen, but as she did so, Waters stole bank cards from the purse.

CCTV later caught Waters using the cards to buy various items included lottery scratch cards.

On September 4 last year, Waters knocked on the door of another elderly woman in Great Wakering asking if she could use her toilet, but after being allowed into the flat, she stole the woman’s purse and cards.

Waters, formerly of Great Wakering but now of London Road, Westcliff, later admitted theft and fraud and was sentenced at Basildon Crown Court yesterday.

Mitigating, Chris Whitcombe said that Waters had been addicted to Class A drugs and sometimes would be spending “hundreds of pounds a day” on them.

He said Waters was “embarrassed” by her behaviour and said it was when she was “in the grip” of drugs.

Judge Andrew Hurst told Waters: “You decided to target vulnerable ladies, you betrayed their trust and took advantage of them, it was mean and it was deliberate.”

Waters received a two year prison sentence suspended for two years, 30 days of rehabilitation and 280 hours of unpaid work.