TWO women targeted elderly people in a "highly polished" and "despicable" series of thefts.

Doreen Miller, 43, and Barbara Maberly, 33, stole purses from the bags of elderly women as they went about their shopping.

Yesterday, both were jailed for four years at Newcastle Crown Court after admitting the offences.

Judge Peter Bowers said: "It is hard to bring into words the despicable nature of these offences against these old ladies."

Prosecutor Paul Caulfield said the two women, both from Chathill Terrace in Newcastle, were arrested after police and closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras caught them stealing from four elderly women.

Ada Kemp, 70, became a victim during a shopping trip to the Galleries shopping centre in Washington and lost £40. The pair then went to South Shields town centre, where CCTV cameras spotted them targeting 78-year-old Alice Cook.

Florence Rugg, 96, who is blind in one eye and virtually deaf, became a victim as she shopped in Jarrow. A few minutes later, Miller and Maberly stole a purse containing £29 from Violet Dodds, 75.

Miller and Maberly admitted four charges of theft and one of attempted theft.

Ronald Mitchell, mitigating, said that the victims had not known their purses were being stolen and therefore were not caused distress by someone tugging at their bag.

But Judge Bowers said: "It is quite clear from your history and from these offences that you are professional thieves who engage upon carefully planned and orchestrated offences."