THREE members of a gang who helped fleece a New Forest pensioner out of her life savings have been handed prison sentences totalling seven and a half years.

Car dealer Tommy Lee and unemployed Geoffrey Howard were each handed three years for their part in the cruel fraud that cost their 84-year-old victim almost £100,000.

Twenty-four-year-old Anne Cash wept in the dock at Southampton Crown Court where she was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.

Following a nine-day trial the three had been found guilty of retaining a wrongful credit.

Jurors heard how the victim, who lives alone in a mobile caravan near Fordingbridge, had been conned out of the cash for work carried out on her home.

Work carried out for the frail pensioner- including roof, chimney and guttering repairs - was heard to have amounted to no more than £1,600.

The prosecution could not prove who called at her home and persuaded her to have the work done.

A cheque she made for £40,000 was traced to Cash, of Coventry, who kept £3,200.

Howard, 43, of Winnersh, Reading, and Lee, 27, from Sandhurst, Berkshire, each received £13,300.

Cash's brother, Miles Rooney, 26, from Croydon, Surrey, who was alleged to have had the balance, was earlier acquitted.

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Cash's former boyfriend Adam Reid who faced charges of retaining a wrongful credit worth more than £25,000 - he is believed to have fled Britain, possibly to Spain.

In mitigation barrister Nicholas Dunham said Miss Cash had "no involvement in the actual deception".

He said Cash, who left school aged 11, had experienced two miscarriages and suffered "extreme" depression.

Judge Tom MacKean told the three defendants: "In receiving the monies you were playing an important part in what must be regarded as an exceptionally mean and unpleasant fraud upon an elderly and vulnerable victim."

Lee, the only defendant with means, was ordered to pay £13,300 compensation and £2,500 costs.

The pensioner could receive around £30,000 from confiscation proceedings following the trio's sentencing.

DC Colin Pinkney of Hampshire Police said the elderly victim was "pleased" with yesterday's result.

"I would advise elderly people never to have work done by people who cold call to their door and of they require work to be done to get a number of quotes from reputable companies," he said.

"I ask people to be aware if they have elderly neighbours of they seem to have unsavoury people carrying out work for them."

First published: April 5