A serial fraudster who tried to smuggle cocaine into a jail said she had been given no choice.

Kathleen Perry, who was then living at a flat in Tonbridge Road, Maidstone, said she had been a heroin addict at the time of the offence on November 30, 2018.

The prisoner, who was serving time in Wandsworth for burglary and drug dealing, was her daughter’s boyfriend.

Perry, 58, said he had phoned her and told her some of his friends were coming to stay with her - and they would “see her all right”.

Subsequently, three men and a teenage girl turned up at her flat and moved in.

They supplied her with heroin, but in return increasingly took control of her life, eventually taking her keys from her and keeping her a virtual prisoner, she told Maidstone Crown Court.

She said: “It was chaotic. My home wasn’t my own anymore.

“They became very controlling.”

Eventually, she said, she was ordered to take the drugs to the prisoner, which she attempted to hide inside a packet of crisps.

She said she feared for her life, that of her daughter and the lives of her grandchildren, if she hadn’t obeyed.

The furtive exchange was clearly captured on the prison’s CCTV and shown to the court, and she was immediately arrested.

However, she denied the offence at the time and did not mention to police her story about being forced to make the delivery.

Her house guests had continued to live with her for two months, until the flat was raided by police in January 2019, who found large quantities of drugs.

Perry appeared at Maidstone Crown Court this week for sentencing on this and other offences.

Judge Robert Lazarus heard that Perry had subsequently moved to a Golding Homes property in Acorn Place at Park Wood, where she continued to commit offences.

In November 2022, she was convicted of posing as a police officer and as a social worker to defraud two vulnerable pensioners.

Together with an accomplice, Emma Fuggles of Roseholme, Maidstone, she knocked on an elderly man's door pretending to be a police officer, saying she would arrest him for sexual assault if he didn't hand over his bank card and PIN number.

She used the card to withdraw two lots of £250 from a cash machine.

On a separate occasion, Perry targeted a 69-year-old woman, living alone in Maidstone.

She pretended to be from social services and told the woman that her neighbour, who had recently died, had ordered some bedding and it needed paying for.

She told the victim the dead woman's family would reimburse her if she handed over her bank card and PIN number.

Perry used it to withdraw £220.

Both incidents were reported to police and were caught on CCTV.

Perry had 17 previous convictions for fraud by false representation.

Judge Lazurus told Perry’s defence barrister, James Ross, that: “The extent of your client’s dishonesty from the year dot is extraordinary.”

He added: “I’ve heard no evidence that these men were at her house at the time of the first (drugs) offence.”

Perry has been in custody awaiting sentencing for the past 19 months.

She is to return to court on April 25 when Judge Lazarus will hand down his sentence.