A STROKE victim was robbed in the street by a local "nuisance" who continually pesters her for money.

Kerry Jeffries had already been given cash and somewhere to stay for the night by the 71-year-old Middlesbrough woman.

But when the pensioner refused to help any further the following day, Jeffries followed her to a shop where she withdrew £60 and snatched it from her.

Jeffries, 35, of Outram Street, Middlesbrough, admitted robbery and was jailed for three years at Teesside Crown Court, where a judge said: "You regarded her as an easy touch."

In a statement, the victim said mother-of-two Jeffries was "as drunk as a skunk" when she turned up at her home late on January 26, and kept falling asleep in a chair.

She stayed the night, was given £20 by the pensioner, then her partner turned up asking for £10, prosecutor Jenny Haigh, said.

Jeffries kept demanding more cash, but was refused, and when the householder went to a nearby shop, she was followed by her unwelcome guest.

Closed-circuit television footage captures a tussle in which Jeffries wrestles her victim's purse from her, empties it and throws it on the ground.

Duncan McReddie, mitigating, said: "She accepts she has committed this crime, and it's a horrible thing. She appears before you contrite and embarrassed.

"Miss Jeffries concedes that when she doesn't get what she wants, she takes it."

The judge, Recorder Jonathan Sandiford, told Jeffries: "It seems to me you had regarded her as an easy touch, and someone from who money could he got. You were leeching her for her money."

Her victim said: "She won't leave me alone. She is nasty when I won't give her any money. She is a nuisance."

"Kerry has no right to take my money. I have worked all my life for it. It was nasty what she did. She knows I have got bad legs after my stroke."