A heartless thief who tricked a pensioner suffering from dementia into handing over cash for bogus work at his home has been jailed for just over two years.

John McDonagh targeted the 84-year-old man at his home in Hadlow in November last year.

It was the third time the 26-year-old had been punished for conning vulnerable victims.

He was on a suspended sentence when he and an accomplice knocked on his latest victim’s door in Appletons.

After telling the widower his roof needed repairing at a cost of £335, McDonagh drove him to his bank in Tonbridge and then to a petrol station cashpoint to withdraw a total of £1,100.

The victim handed over all the money. He was dropped back home and the sham builders fled.

The pensioner, who despite his condition had been allowed to keep his bank card by his daughters, told his carer and McDonagh, who lives in a caravan in Wagon Lane, Paddock Wood, was arrested.

Judge Philip Statman told McDonagh at Maidstone Crown Court his deception meant he had not only taken the victim’s money, but also the “last vestige of independence” his family had allowed him to have.

He described the offence as “preying of the worst kind” on the elderly.

"As a family that seeks to see the good in people, this has been a salutary lesson. The defendant and his sidekick should be utterly ashamed of themselves" - victim's daughter

“This was deliberate targeting of a victim on the basis of vulnerability,” he told McDonagh, who admitted fraud, driving while disqualified, having no insurance and theft of a vacuum cleaner from Putlands Leisure Centre in Tonbridge in October.

He was banned from driving for two years.

Jailing McDonagh for 25 months, the judge told him: “It would have become acutely clear to you that he was a vulnerable old man.

“No one in a full and clear state of mind would have responded to you and what you were seeking to do in the manner that he did.

“No one would have allowed themselves, but for their age and vulnerability, to be driven by you in a van they had never been in before to a local cashpoint to have money taken in this way.”

McDonagh was given a suspended sentence for false representation in April last year after befriending a man with learning difficulties, persuading him to hand over £750 for gardening work.

In 2014, he conned another vulnerable man out of £1,580.

The judge said: “He has had a charmed life so far. It’s third time unlucky as far as that’s concerned.”

Tim Bass, defending, said McDonagh knew all too well he had behaved despicably.

His accomplice was arrested but not charged when he was found to have an IQ in single figures, the court heard.

A daughter of the latest victim said in a victim statement: “As a family that seeks to see the good in people, this has been a salutary lesson. The defendant and his sidekick should be utterly ashamed of themselves.”

Detective Constable Bob Fursey, the investigating officer for this case, said: "McDonagh’s offending was deceptive and malicious.

"The vulnerability of the victim would have been apparent to the offender from the moment they first made contact and he played on this to take as much money as possible.

"By targeting a vulnerable victim in this way McDonagh has shown he is a very real danger to the public and I welcome the sentence he has received."