A CONMAN who fleeced a pensioner of her savings is today (Monday, December 22) starting an 18-month prison sentence for his "despicable" crime.

Gary Alexander convinced the widow he was a friend of her late husband and offered to do jobs around her home.

He ripped up carpets in three of her rooms as he pretended to look at the plumbing for a new toilet she wanted, a court heard.

After being asked for £2,000 for new flooring and going to the bank to get it, the 67-year-old Billingham woman never saw Alexander again.

He was caught when DNA was found on a paper dust mask he wore when he carried out the con in August, said prosecutor David Crook.

Mr Crook said Alexander was jailed in 2010 for tricking a vulnerable man out of £300 in Hartlepool after pretending to know him.

Judge Peter Bowers, at Teesside Crown Court, told the 48-year-old: "On any reading, these are despicable crimes."

He added: "You are a skilled and plausible fraudster. You gained the victim's confidence and feigned an acquaintance.

"She was clearly targeted because she was elderly and vulnerable. £2,000 might not seem a lot, but it was all she had.

"Now she is left with a house that's dishevelled, with no carpets, and no way of replacing them. You have to go to prison."

The court heard that Alexander approached the woman at a bus stop and said: "Hi, how are you? I haven't seen you for ages."

Mr Crook said she was "totally puzzled" when Alexander - calling himself Mike Smith, from Hartlepool - asked if her husband was ok.

After chatting for a while and learning the widow needed some DIY work doing, he claimed to be a plumber and took her home.

Jim Withyman, mitigating, told the court that Alexander is "greatly embarrassed and disgusted with himself for what he did".

He added: "There is no excuse. He realises that he will will spend some time in custody, probably on the protection wing.

"It is his intention, when he is finally released, to move away from this area and make a new start. He behaved appallingly."

The victim told in a statement how she has no carpets in her living room, bedroom and staircase, and had to pay £730 for a toilet.

"It has completely knocked me for six, physically, emotionally and financially," she said. "I am struggling to live."

Alexander, of Martinett Court, Thornaby, near Stockton, admitted a charge of fraud at an earlier court appearance.