A wannabe con-man who tried to trick elderly residents into believing they owed him money for windows he never cleaned has been sentenced to 14 months in jail.

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The fictional Moriarty was a mastermind criminal who stole the Crown Jewels in one episode of the BBC adaptation Sherlock. Pic: BBC

Unlike his namesake, Anthony Moriarty, 29, of Brighton Road, Banstead, had a lower expectation of his criminal endeavours.

He called on two elderly women on two separate occasions in Sutton claiming they owed him money for cleaning their windows.

Moriarty first called on a 87-year-old living in Mayfield Road, Sutton, on Sunday, February 22, and told her he needed to be paid after he cleaned her windows at the front and back of her home.

She told Moriarty that she had not asked anyone to clean her windows since her mother died in 1993.

Moriarty then asked to enter the home and claimed the work had been on his calendar, but she refused and called the police once Moriarty had left.

The next day police were alerted to a man knocking on doors asking if they wanted their windows cleaned.

Officers later found Moriarty on the doorstep of a home in King's Lane where he was talking with a 83-year-old woman.

He had told the woman that he had cleaned her windows at 5.30am, but she was suspicious that Moriarty was not her regular window cleaner.

At Croydon Crown Court Moriarty was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment after pleading guilty to two counts of fraud and was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £100.

Moriarty was also issued with a criminal behaviour order, which bans him from entering Kings Lane, Mayfield Road, Crowland Road, Gilsland Road and Cassaland Road.