A drug addict who preyed relentlessly on elderly women while playing the Good Samaritan has been jailed.

Basia Chapman targeted the old and vulnerable to fund her £100-a-day heroin and crack cocaine habit, a court heard.

She posed as a friendly neighbour, concerned passer-by and helpful shopper to steal money from her trusting victims.

Locking Chapman up for two years, Judge Scott Wolstenholme branded her offences “despicable”. He told her: “You have been preying on vulnerable old women for years – and that’s what you have been doing here.”

Chapman, 32, of Oakroyd Terrace, Manningham, Bradford, admitted stealing eight times from a 73-year-old woman she called ‘Grandma’.

Prosecutor Kirstie Watson said Chapman knocked on the door of the woman’s flat in Barkerend, Bradford, the week before Christmas 2008. She said she was a new neighbour.

When Chapman had left, it was found £130 had gone from a silver pot in the living room.

After that, Chapman was a regular visitor, usually on a Tuesday when the woman collected her £115 pension money.

Miss Watson said the cash went missing up to five times. When the pensioner drew money from the bank to cover her loss, Chapman stole that too.

Chapman warned the pensioner to zip up her bag carefully because of thieves when the pair met in the street. Shortly afterwards, the woman discovered her purse containing £100 and her bus pass was gone.

In all, Chapman took £1,310 from the pensioner.

In January last year, Chapman stole from an 82-year-old woman after helping her when she fell. She sat her down with a cup of tea, then vanished – with the woman’s purse containing £195.

On her arrest in April, she told police the 73-year-old woman was “like a grandma to me”.

On bail, Chapman tricked her way into a 74-year-old woman’s Buttershaw home after helping her with her wheelie bin. She took £83 from her purse.

The pensioner chased her out and called police. She was “vulnerable, shocked, very upset and frightened,” the court heard.

Chapman’s next victim was an 83-year-old woman she befriended in TJ Hughes in Bradford city centre in June, stealing her purse containing £100.

Chapman pleaded guilty to theft, burglary and possession of heroin.

Her barrister, Sarah Barlow, said they were opportunistic offences to pay for drugs.

Chapman has convictions dating back to when she was a teenager.