A pensioner has expressed delight at the two-year jail sentence given to a woman gambler who conned her out of her life savings.

Bette Cohen, 70, of Portland Road, Hove, was talked into handing over £47,500 by Victoria Counter, who posed as her friend.

The pensioner had been saving the cash for her retirement but now has to live on benefits.

Last night, Mrs Cohen, a former fashion model, said: "I am absolutely delighted. I know it's nasty to say this but I have no sympathy for her whatsoever. It is no more than she deserves.

"I'm very bitter and angry. I'm 70 now and feel I shouldn't have to be looking at every penny - but now I have to.

"I've never claimed a penny in my life and now I'm on benefits. It is very degrading. I trusted her. She knew I had money and took me for every penny."

Counter, formerly of Arundel Gardens, Rustington, near Littlehampton, who now lives in Mortlake, Surrey, was found guilty on 11 charges of obtaining money by deception. She was cleared of four counts, relating to £13,000.

Counter was sentenced yesterday at Hove Crown Court.

It was several months after the death of Mrs Cohen's husband Sidney, when friends persuaded her to spend a night at the Grosvenor casino in Hove.

By coincidence, she found herself sitting next to a glamorous woman called Victoria Pike - Counter's former name.

Mrs Cohen said: "She was a nice person and good company. She would gamble like I've never seen.

"By her appearance, I assumed she had a lot of money. We got to know each other and she started to call me at home in London.

"It was her idea that I move down to Brighton. She found me the flat.

"She would call and tell me how she was in trouble because her money was frozen in a dispute over her uncle's estate. The way she spent money I believed her.

"One weekend I visited her at her mother's flat in Rustington. It was a nice flat but for someone who had so much money it didn't add up.

"Her mother was the first person to ring and ask me for money. She said Victoria needed someone to help her out. I sent a cheque for £1,000."

That was the first of many cheques to come.

Mrs Cohen said: "She even asked me to pawn one or two of my rings but I told her I wouldn't do that."

When Mrs Cohen learned Victoria's mother had moved to a nursing home and the Rustington flat was on the market, she made inquiries.

It was only then she realised she had been taken for a ride.

She went to solicitors and then to the police.

The next time she saw Victoria Pike, she was the newly-married Mrs Counter stepping into the witness box at Lewes Crown Court.

Counter has been declared bankrupt and lives in a council house with her husband.