AN “EVIL fraudster” who cheated the elderly woman she was employed to care for out of nearly £19,000 has been jailed.

Corina Lyons’ crimes forced the seriously ill woman to have to sell her house, move to an area where she didn’t know anyone and have to rely on neighbours bringing her sandwiches on a plate to her bedside, said Helen Towers, prosecuting.

It was the second time the 54-year-old had been before the courts for fraud. She was jailed for three years in 2009 for a similar fraud of £100,000 on an elderly vulnerably woman she had met through a local church.

Helen Towers, prosecuting, said after her arrest, Lyons lied to lawyers and the courts about the seriously ill victim in a series of defence statements, claiming the victim was lying about her illness, had hacked into Lyons’ email and telephone to fabricate messages between them and was cheating the DWP over benefits.

“You are an evil fraudster,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told Lyons, whom he also described as “fundamentally dishonest.”

“It was all lies, again, and again, and again.”

Following her release from the 2009 sentence: “you straightaway got your needles into your next victim,” he said.

“She should have been enjoying the twilight of her years, close to her lived ones. You have ripped that away.”

Lyons, of Pannel Green, Harrogate, pleaded guilty to three charges of fraud on the day she was due to stand trial.

She was jailed for another three years.

Ms Towers said Lyons was a carer until 2014 for the seriously ill victim, who had recently come into an inheritance which she had put aside to pay off an endowment mortgage when it became due.

In 2011, Lyons told her she needed a loan of £5,000 to finance her son through higher education.

But the son had a student loan and maintenance grant for accommodation.

Lyons spent the money on shopping and cash withdrawals for herself.

She persuaded the victim to give her another loan and let her use her credit card with claims that she needed start-up funds for a business opportunity writing software for Sony.

She spent almost £10,000 on the card and altogether cheated the woman out of £18,649.

She made no repayments on either loan.

In a personal statement, the seriously ill victim described how she had had to sell her home. She had hoped to move to be nearer her relatives, but could only afford a cheaper house a long way from them.

For Lyons, Mohammad Qazi said she had essentially continued her fraudulent habits on her release after her first sentence.

“This defendant had found herself unable to escape from it,” he said.

However, she had not committed any crimes for six years and that could show that she had changed her ways, he said.