A PICKPOCKET who targeted elderly women in stores across Dorset has been jailed for 20 months.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard Ivalina Hristova, 34, had come to the UK to make money to send to her children in Bulgaria.

She targeted 14 victims, all aged over 70 except one, a 44-year-old who was blind, in a spree of thefts at shops including Waitrose, Wilkinsons and Iceland, in Bournemouth, Christchurch, Poole and Weymouth, between August last year and January.

Sentencing her on Wednesday, Judge Brian Forster QC said: "It is clear to me that you travelled to this area to steal. You targeted elderly and vulnerable victims. Easy targets."

Dubbing her crimes "heartless", the judge said: "The lady who was 102 at the time, she describes how she has lived through two world wars and has not ever been a victim of crime."

The court heard mitigation from Robert Grey, who said his client, who stole £750 from purses and £300 from a bank account, had targeted open handbags rather than elderly people specifically.

He acknowledged his client had demonstrated "an apparent lack of remorse" when speaking with probation officers, but said: "She says she accepts she was mainly concerned with her own business. But she is ashamed and sorry for what she did."

The court heard Hristova, whose addressed was listed with the court as the Manchester Hotel, Bournemouth, had committed most of the offences with an accomplice providing "security".

Mr Grey said of this man, who has not been charged, "she may have been in thrall to a greater or lesser extent to this male she was with".

He said Hristova, had lived in the UK "a number of times" and the offences took place during a 10 month period of residence.

"She comes to the UK, she tells me, to work to repatriate money back to Bulgaria where she has two children aged 10 and 15," he said.

"She had a number of jobs, work as a kitchen assistant, a cleaner, a chicken food preparation worker, she has never had benefits in the UK.

"She wants to return as soon as possible to Bulgaria to see her children."

Hristova admitted 14 counts of theft and one of fraud.