A SCHEMING Cradley Heath woman who conned a blind Halesowen dementia sufferer in his 90s into buying her a £188,000 house while working as his cleaner has been locked up for five-and-a-half years.

Veronica Robinson also regularly milked the bank account of the World War Two naval veteran and pocketed nearly £50,000.

Judge Barry Berlin described the 61-year-old as an "unprincipled opportunist" and he told her she had been "motivated by insatiable greed."

He said the mother-of-two had isolated the man from his family and friends and she used the "terrifying" prospect of him having to go into a care home as a "lever" to take his money.

The judge said Robinson swindled the man out of his life savings and went on: "You labelled yourself as his carer but you cared only for his substantial savings."

It was grave offending, he added at Wolverhampton Crown Court, against a man who was extremely vulnerable because of his age and his deteriorating mental capacity.

Robinson, of High Haden Road, took control of the man's finances and she only cared for him after starting off as his cleaner so she could exercise power and control over his affairs.

She systematically abused her position of trust so she could defraud the man - now aged 96 - out of his substantial savings in what was "well planned, extremely determined and prolonged abuse," said Mark Jackson prosecuting.

Robinson had denied fraud by abuse of position and attempting to pervert the course of justice but she was convicted on unanimous verdicts by a jury at the end of her four week trial.

The twice divorced Robinson maintained after her arrest it had been agreed between her and the victim that she would look after him for the rest of his life.

But the judge said it was clear she had no intention of protecting him as she raided his savings and made out the cheque that he signed to buy the three bedroomed property in Beecher Street, Halesowen.

He said it would have been obvious to Robinson that he lacked mental capacity as she took full advantage of his position.

Mr Jackson told the court that Robinson who had handed back the house to the man's estate would now have to face a Proceeds of Crime Hearing next January.

He said a full investigation would be carried out in the interim into bank accounts she held in Australia where her marriages broke down and she ran her own business.

The total loss to the victim was £236,400, said Mr Jackson, and her offending had badly damaged his relationship with his family and friends.

Ben Close, defending Robinson, who showed no reaction as she was jailed, said she had needed money to maintain her lifestyle and having lead an industrious life it was a tragedy that she had turned her skills to crime.