Brother and sister jailed for robbing pensioners

A BROTHER and sister have been jailed for a total of more than three years for conning their way into the homes of vulnerable OAPs to steal cash.

Evelyn and John McPhee targeted four victims – one aged 98, a blind woman aged 93, and others aged 77 and 96 – at addresses in Dundee.

At the blind woman’s house, Evelyn McPhee pretended her car had broken down and she needed to use a phone.

But once inside, the shaking victim told McPhee, ‘I think I’m getting things stolen’, before she made off with £60.

Her brother carried out similar cons on the other three women, pretending to be a workman or enquiring about furniture sitting outside to get into their homes.

Fiscal depute Saima Rasheed told Dundee Sheriff Court that in his first crime John McPhee went to a 77-year-old woman’s door at 9.15pm and asked to talk to her about an armchair sitting in her garden.

He then asked for a glass of water before stealing the woman’s purse, containing bank cards and £15 cash.

Five days later Evelyn McPhee robbed the blind woman. Her brother robbed the other two victims over the following two days, stealing cash and bank cards after talking his way into the pensioners’ homes.

Evelyn McPhee, 32, a prisoner at Edinburgh prison, pleaded guilty to stealing £60 on May 6 this year in Dundee and was jailed for seven months.

John McPhee, 34, a prisoner at HMP Perth, was jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty to stealing from addresses in Dundee in May. He was on two bail orders at the time.

Sheriff Alastair Carmichael said: ‘These offences are offences of the worst order of dishonesty.’

‘Worst order of dishonesty’