A CALLOUS thief and fraudster who preyed on vulnerable elderly people into their 90s in Largs is facing prison after a jury found her guilty of a catalogue of cruel crimes.

Cheri Steele targeted a profoundly deaf 94-year-old woman and snatched her handbag and bank card before stealing £200 from a cash machine and attempting a £632 fraud at a sports shop.

Steele and her drug addict boyfriend Stephen Gill conducted a crime spree spanning three months at sheltered housing complexes, care establishments and people's homes — leaving a trail of misery and confusion in their wake.

Steele, 32, claimed that Gill, 53 — who was jailed earlier this year after pleading guilty — was responsible for all of the offences and that she had no idea what was happening while they were both living in Largs.

Steele told Greenock Sheriff Court: "I was trying to start a cleaning business. I thought he was knocking on doors to get me clients for my firm, I was unaware of what was going on."

She claimed that Gill had told her that a friend who owed him money had given him the bank card she'd used in a bid to obtain hundreds of pounds worth of gear from JD Sports in Greenock.

Steele said: "He [Gill] manipulated me. I've never been convicted of any offences before.

"My stepdad was in the MoD police and my mum was in the Army. I come from a good family."

Steele targeted victims at Homemount House, Kirklands and Holmwood in Largs, as well as an ATM machine in the town, shops in Greenock, a sheltered housing complex in Kilmacolm and houses at Monkton Place in Port Glasgow.

The card she'd made up to six attempts to use in the attempted fraud was the property of a 95-year-old man.

Steele also tried to blame the nighttime thefts of items including a plant pot, lamp and imitation tree from other people — including a man in his 80s who had been nursing his dying wife — on Gill.

She claimed: "He told me a friend of a friend was moving house and that we could get some of his stuff for our veranda.

"I was oblivious to it all.

"He lied to me throughout — it was just lie, after lie, after lie."

Steele and Gill's victims were aged 95, 94, 88, 75, 73 and 67.

Under cross-examination from prosecutor Raeesa Ahmed, Steele insisted: "I can't lie to save myself.

"I would never make anyone a victim — it's not who I am."

A reduced jury of seven men and six women didn't believe her and returned guilty verdicts on a total of 13 charges.

Sheriff Michael Higgins has deferred sentence on Steele until later this month for a background report to be prepared.