A HOMELESS man has been jailed for conning money out of two women by pretending he had been in a cycling accident.

Craig Wicks, 34, first talked his way into the home of a woman in her 80s in Marston Street, Oxford, on March 17.

He told her he had been knocked off his bike and needed £10 to get a taxi to the hospital.

Wicks then came into her home and asked for a further £2, which she handed over.

Four days later, he used the same method to get £10 from a woman in her home in Percy Street, Oxford.

Prosecutor Michael Williams said: “She [the elderly victim] was upset and felt unclean that he had been in her house.”

On both occasions Wicks left details with the women in order for them to be able to get in touch with him and it was using these details that police officers tracked him down and arrested him.

Wicks admitted two counts of fraud by false representation. The court was told he had a number of previous convictions for similar offences, and had been given a six-month jail term in November last year.

Graham Bennett, defending, said Wicks had problems with drug abuse. He told the court: “This is confidence fraud. He was abusing the generosity of the people who lived at these two addresses.

“Although the amounts are small that is not the measure in this case, it is in terms of the way it was committed.

“There was a period of abstinence from drugs, when he was able to establish a relationship and have a child, but unfortunately he fell back into substance misuse and he has appeared more before the courts now than at other times in his life.

“He finally ended up living in a tent with nothing than his addiction to feed. He is probably in the lowest position he has been in his 34 years.”

Recorder Julian Knowles said: “You spun a tale to get into the house of an elderly lady.

“She allowed you into her property, keen to play the good Samaritan. She wittingly gave you £10, unwittingly being defrauded.

“You followed her around her house and eventually persuaded her to give you £12 in total.

“You left the premises and did not return and did not pay the victim back. While the sum was a small amount and there is no suggestion threats were used, you entered the victim’s house and it is inevitable she will have suffered distress.”

Wicks was jailed for five months for one count and a further four months for the second, to be served concurrently.