A con woman duped prospective tenants out of more than £3,000.

Between April and May 2016 Justina Steigvilaite showed victims around a flat in Parrock Street, Gravesend.

However, when the victims attempted to move into the property they found that Steigvilaite was not the landlord and a legal tenant was already present.

Appearing at Maidstone Crown Court last week the 31-year-old, of Parkway in Erith, pleaded guilty to eight counts of fraud.

The court heard, after advertising the room for rent in a local shop, Steigvilaite showed various people around and accepted deposits from five of them.

The money handed over varied between £200 and £1,200 and on some occasions was paid directly into the offender’s bank account.

Steigvilaite also admitted receiving more than £5,000 from the Department of Work and Pensions due to a false representation.

The money was supposed to go to a person she was caring for, but instead she kept a majority of the funds and only made partial payments to the rightful recipient.

She also took out a bank loan in the name of another person and withdrew the funds from their account.

PC Colin Bassett, the investigating officer for this case, said: "Steigvilaite deceitfully gained over £3,000 from people who were looking for a place to live.

"She caused a huge amount of stress to each of these victims. Further to this she abused a position of trust to steal benefit payments meant for another person and took out a bank loan with a false identity to gain even more money. The sentence received is entirely appropriate."