Elizabeth Barker, 19, was widow Eliza Broadhead's window cleaner and had won her trust.

She stole cash from her widowed victim's OAP bungalow in Eastleigh Court Tingley, three times in March.

Just weeks before the thefts Barker had taken part in a community campaign to save a neighbouring sheltered housing complex from the axe.

Barker, of Sissons Road in Middleton, was caught out by covert CCTV installed in the flat by police on the request Mrs Broadhead's daughter Sheila Cree. Mrs Cree became suspicious after money went missing from her mum's purse.

Sentencing Barker to 16 months in a Young Offenders' Institution, Judge Geoffrey Marson QC told Barker: "It was a vile and wicked thing to do, to target a vulnerable victim in this way. A lady who is entitled in her final years to be protected by the courts by those who prey upon her."

After the sentencing hearing, Mrs Broadhead's daughter Mrs Cree, 59, of Morley, said: "Barker didn't get jailed for long enough as far as I'm concerned.

"It's outrageous that an old lady who worked all her life should be targeted in this way. My mum worked as a canteen manageress at Lofthouse Pit when the disaster happened and later as a cleaner.

"It hurts because she is so generous and never complains. To take advantage of someone like that is despicable. If I hadn't have been there it could have carried on because my mum's memory has gone and she would trust anyone."

Barker had pleaded guilty to three charges of burglary.

The court heard Barker had started using heroin two years ago after falling for a drug addict who was twice her age.

She was said to have "genuine remorse" for her crimes.