A "despicable" conman has been jailed for five years after tricking a disabled pensioner and a war veteran out of hundreds of pounds for fake repair work.

John Ridgley, 43, preyed on vulnerable people in Sutton and Banstead by convincing them to pay him for guttering and roofing jobs - before stealing cash or running off without completing the work.

The serial swindler had already been slapped with anti-social behaviour order barring him from knocking at houses to offer repair work after pulling similar scams in Kingston and Carshalton.

In October 2015 he charged a 91-year-old World War II Navy veteran £140 to have the gutters cleared at his home in Oaks Way, Sutton.

The fraudster followed as the victim used his chairlift to go upstairs to fetch the cash.

After seeing where the money was kept, Ridgley later asked to use the toilet and stole a further £100 from the elderly man's bedroom.

Nine months earlier, Ridgley convinced an 83-year-old disabled woman in Banstead to pay £240 for guttering and roofing work he never carried out.

He was arrested as he sat in a Ford Transit Connect van in Epsom in October last year.

Sentencing the "despicable and deplorable" fraudster on Monday, a Croydon Crown Court judge asked: "How low can you stoop?"

Ridgley, of Revere Way, Epsom, was given consecutive sentences of 24 months for theft in Sutton, 30 months for fraud in Banstead, and a three-month sentence for each of two breaches of the ASBOs.

He pleaded guilty to the offences.

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