A JUDGE has slammed the “mean and despicable” actions of a Hampshire woman who stole and defrauded two sick and vulnerable ladies in their 90s of more than £15,000.

Ruth Corbett befriended the two women before gaining access to their joint bank card.

The 50-year-old then used the card to withdraw £12,000 cash in a matter of weeks.

The mother-of-three also used the card to splash out on thousands of pounds worth of goods and electrical items from Amazon and Tesco.

Now Corbett has been jailed by a judge, who described her actions towards the women, one who has since died of cancer, as “mean and despicable”.

At Corbett’s sentencing at Southampton Crown Court, the court heard how she had befriended two women, both in their 90s, before going on to commit the theft and fraud.

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The court heard one of the women, a former accountant, was diagnosed with bowel cancer during their friendship, while the other woman suffered from early onset dementia.

Corbett later gained access to a bank card linked to the pair’s joint bank account, which at first was used to purchase items and take out cash for the pair.

She later used the cards to purchase items for herself in lieu of payment for caring for the pair.

But the court heard that between March and April 2018, Corbett began taking out larger sums of cash.

The court heard she took out £500 on 24 occasions over a four week period.

She also used the card to spend more than £8,000 on items from Tesco and Amazon – though the court accepted some of those items were for the victims.

The court heard the amount Corbett benefited from was thought to be between £15,000 and £20,000.

Mitigating for Corbett, Helen Easterbrook said her client, who was found guilty of two counts of fraud and one count of theft at trial.

She said Corbett's actions had not been fraudulent from the outset and that Corbett was a key figure in her family.

Ms Easterbrook said one of Corbett’s daughters suffered from Turner Syndrome, a development condition in young females, and that another had recently become pregnant.

She added that an immediate custodial sentence would impact on Corbett’s family and urged Judge Peter Henry to suspend any sentence.

But Judge Henry said Corbett’s crimes were “too serious” to suspend a custodial sentence.

He said: “As your relationship (with the victims) continued it must have been obvious to you how vulnerable these two women were.

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“(One of the victims) became infirm after a fall and later became extremely ill through bowel cancer, from which she has sadly subsequently died.

“(The other victim) was also in her 90s and had been diagnosed with early onset dementia, something that you knew.

“This was a mean and despicable thing to do and these are serious matters.”

Judge Henry sentenced Corbett, of Doncaster Road, Eastleigh, to 16 months in prison.