TWO teenagers, who conned a 91-year-old woman in Welham Green and other elderly people, were jailed for nearly eight years.

John Connors and David Devlin, both 19, were part of a conspiracy where vulnerable victims were targeted across five counties, St Albans Crown Court heard.

The pair struck at Welham Green, Colney Heath, Aston, Standon, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead.

Prosecutor Neil King said: “The burglaries involved the deliberate targeting of the elderly by men claiming to be from the water board.”

A 91-year-old woman was tricked out of �250 when two men called at her home in Welham Green at 9.20am on October 12, 2009.

She had seen two men inside her elderly neighbour’s home and, knowing he was out, went to ask them what they wanted.

They told her they were turning the water off and she needed to fill up containers.

One man went with her to the kitchen while the other ransacked her bedroom.

Devlin admitted involvement in three break-ins five days later.

Connors, of Stafford Road, South Ruislip, and Devlin, of Carmichael Close, South Ruislip, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle between September 28 and October 18, 2009.

Both men had previous convictions.

Emma Reed, for Connors, said: “He was involved in one day of the conspiracy and was not the mastermind.”

For Devlin, Paul Williams said he had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

He said he had recently become a father.

Jailing the pair last Monday, Judge Andrew Bright QC called the raids “a particularly mean and nasty type of offence”.

Connors was sentenced to three years and four months and Devlin to four-and-a-half years.