A fraudster who tricked a 92-year-old lady into paying £140 for a non-existent COVID vaccine at the height of the pandemic has been jailed.

Claiming to work for the NHS, David Chambers, 33, gave a pretend jab to Kathleen Martin at her home in southwest London last December.

He returned five days later charging to administer a non-existent jab by pressing something sharp into the back of her wrist without breaking the skin and demanded another £100 unknown to him that the elderly woman had already realized the scam and alerted the police.

Chambers, who had previously targeted other elderly ladies, was jailed for three and a half years.

Judge Hannah Kinch said Ms Martin was “deliberately targeted” and Chambers had “preyed on an elderly victim in her own home”.

“Your actions in these offences were despicable”, she said.

Chambers was arrested after a huge police appeal in January and initially denied being the fraudster.