Revealed: The lengths evil pensioner duo who plundered wills went to to find grieving victims

It is rarer for a female to be jailed, and even more unusual for a pensioner to be incarcerated.

So the rarity of two prim and proper "ladies of retirement age" being sent down is almost unheard of.

But in the dock at Wolverhampton Crown Court two grey haired, spectacled women were told their crimes could only warrant a jail sentence. Their punishment would not suspended, no tags, no curfews but were sent to a waiting prison van ready to transport them to their new life, and home for the next few years.

Laurna Porter, wearing a smart grey jacket, blew kisses to her family, all the different generations who had turned up to support her, and for some the memory of watching nanny being sent to the clink. However, 10 minutes later the worried family were sitting talking to their solicitor holding a huge see-through bag of medication, tablets, creams, sprays and anything else needed to keep her healthy.

Though 68 years old, Porter's loved ones are no different than any other prisoner's family determined the new prisoner gets what she needs to try to survive in a new world of bullying, spitting and split-second violence.

Atkins, also 68, wearing a leopard skin sweater with a black body warmer, sloped away from the dock without looking anywhere else besides the top of her shoes. There were no shouts of support for her from the public gallery, with her family staying away from the unedifying spectacle.

However, elsewhere in the public gallery were the relatives of their victims. Over 13 years Porter plundered estates of people who had given her total trust, which she abused. Several of her victims are already dead, and so are many beneficiaries whose relatives' nest eggs they had counted on for an easier future but ended up being blown on holidays and the high life for the two women in the dock. The minimum number of estates of Staffordshire residents Porter ripped off was 23, the number of beneficiaries short changed may never be known.

Other victims were charities which generous targets of Porter had chosen to benefit from their frugality in life, these included Cancer Research, Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, local hospices and animal charities.

Porter worked for two solicitors in Tamworth and targeted people who wanted to make wills but did not have many family members, but the Express & Star can reveal the lengths Porter would go to in order to find new vulnerable customers to fleece.

Hiding in plain sight, Porter ensured she was at events in Staffordshire where people wanted advice about how to get their affairs in order before they died.

In May, 2016, Porter attended events across the town as part of Dying Matters Awareness Week including a French style street cafe outside Colehill Co-op Bereavement Centre.

A press release about the funeral based get-together invited visitors to meet Porter, promotion material stated: "Organisers stress the event is not a hard sell of funeral services, but an opportunity to talk informally with experts about any aspect of what is a taboo subject. Laurna Porter, probate manager at Glaisyers Solictors, will also be at the event to answer legal queries on topics such as probate, power of attorney and wills.

"One lucky visitor will win a hamper in a competition asking people what they want to do before they die."