A blind pensioner gave away her house when she thought was signing for a box of chocolates in a doorstep sting.Ambrosine St Clair Fretwell, 87, was tricked into signing a document when a courier called at her home to deliver the 'surprise' gift.
But instead the note was to sell the £130,000 house for just £5,000 to car salesman David Graves, 39, a court was told.
Sheffield Crown Court heard that Graves later sold the house to developers for £105,000 - a profit of more than 2,000 per cent.
He is alleged to have blown most of the cash on paying off his mortgage and other debts and buying a £9,000 BMW, Christmas presents and gave his ex girlfriend £5,000 for breast enlargements.
Mrs Fretwell, who had kept the house as an investment after moving out, had no idea about the deal until she found out it had been sold at auction.
Prosecutor Andrew Kershaw told the court that Mrs Fretwell had bought the house at Swinton near Rotherham for £42,500 in 1990, originally to live in but later as an investment.
He told the court that a man turned up at her home to deliver a parcel she wasn't expecting and insisted she signed a document to acknowledge receiving it.
But the paper later turned out to be a Land Registry document which had been folded and showed she had sold the house for £5,000.
Mr Kershaw said: "It is a story about greed, making a quick profit and playing a cynical trick on an elderly lady.
Their story is a highly improbable state of affairs of an elderly , partially sighted lady gifting her £130,000 investment away on her doorstep in the evening gloom to a man who meant nothing to her."
Graves, of Rotherham and Richard Skidmore, 35, also of Rotherham, deny conspiracy to defraud Mrs Fretwell of her legal title and land between July and October last year.
Skidmore , who knew Graves from a gym club, is alleged to have acted as the courier, delivering, the chocolates.
Sprightly Mrs Fretwell, told the court that she and her son, James, 59, were 'absolutely stunned' when they heard the house had been sold at Christmas last year.
She said she had signed for a package when it was delivered even though she was suspicious of the parcel.
She denied deliberately signing a Land Registry Document said it was "impossible and ridiculous." and denied telling Graves she wanted to sell the house when he called at her home earlier.
The trial continues
― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Friday, 11 November 2005 09:45 (twenty years ago)