A woman gambler who duped a widow out of her life savings and lived the high life was jailed for two years today.

Victoria Counter, 55, posed as a wealthy heiress to con "best friend" Bette Cohen, 70, out of £47,500 after the two met at a Hove casino.

She concocted stories to persuade Mrs Cohen to loan her large sums which went to feed her gambling habit and her penchant for high living.

Sentencing Counter at Hove Crown Court today, Judge Suzanne Coates said: "Mrs Cohen was your friend, or believed she was your friend. You were in a position of trust.

"She was vulnerable and a lonely woman, a widow. She was older than you and it was clear the friendship was very important to her.

"However, from the start of your relationship there was a deception being perpetrated, the sham being that you had money when in reality you did not."

Victim Mrs Cohen now lives on state benefits in Portland Road, Hove.

Counter was living with her mother on a weekly carer's allowance in Rustington when she met recently-widowed Mrs Cohen at the Grosvenor Casino in Hove.

She visited Mrs Cohen at her home in London, staying in top hotels, dining at expensive restaurants and shopping at Harrods and Harvey Nichols.

She persuaded Mrs Cohen to move to Hove and continued flaunting her "wealth," spending up to £300 a week on taxis and blowing £1,000 in a night on the gaming tables.

Mrs Cohen was taken in by her story that her late husband's £500,000 fortune had been frozen in a bitter family court dispute and handed over sums ranging from £1,000 to £10,000 for "legal costs" on the understanding she would soon get it back.

She only realised something was wrong when a friend told her Counter's flat in Arundel Gardens, Rustington, was for sale.

A jury convicted Counter of 11 counts of obtaining money by deception totalling £47,500. Mrs Cohen estimates the real amount she lent Counter was closer to £80,000.

Counter, formerly known as Victoria Pike, was cleared of another four counts relating to a further £13,000.

She had denied all the charges, claiming she had never asked for the money.