Two heartless junkies tricked their way into the Gillingham home of a 95-year-old widow claiming to be working for a charity, a court heard.

Rebecca Lee, said to be a former showjumper, and Kelly Jeffrey, first told the pensioner they knew her husband when she answered her front door to them.

Maidstone Crown Court heard the woman, who was in poor health, became suspicious of the pair, telling them her husband had died many years earlier.

But Lee and Jeffrey walked straight into the house and into her living room, with one of them making herself comfortable on the sofa.

They then produced stolen plug-in air fresheners from a bag and said they were selling them for charity.

Prosecutor Bridget Todd told the court one of the women then cuddled the pensioner, causing her to have her back to the second woman.

It was only after they left the house – telling the elderly woman she could have one of the fresheners as “a gift from the charity” – that she realised her handbag had been moved and £60 was missing.

She alerted a neighbour and the police were called. Lee, 34, and Jeffrey, 32, were identified on CCTV from a nearby newsagents where they had been trying to sell the same fresheners.

Lee, of North Street, Milton Regis, near Sittingbourne, and Jeffrey, of Victory Court, Duncan Road, Gillingham, admitted burglary and were both jailed for 27 months.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC said: “The two of you tricked your way into the home of a woman who had lived there for about 70 years.”

He said they had made efforts to reform and shown remorse but the burglary was a “particularly serious type of offence”.

Craig Evans, defending Jeffrey, said she had a background of chronic drug addiction but was no longer a user. He added she was “mortified” at what she had done to her elderly victim.

Kieran Brand, defending Lee, said the mum-of-four “had it all” before she suffered a back injury while showjumping, her brother died and her husband had an affair with her best friend.

She turned to alcohol and painkillers before moving on to heroin and crack cocaine.

Both women have previous convictions for offences including shoplifting and common assault.