An elderly woman who was preyed upon by a con artist decided to prosecute him to deter other cowards who are targeting seniors, her son said yesterday.

Randolph Simons was jailed for five years at Supreme Court yesterday for stealing cheques from the house of 83-year-old Margrit Winchell and emptying $9,000 from her life savings.

Mrs. Winchell let Simons, whom she thought was a Belco meter reader, into her house in Southampton to use the bathroom, but he repaid her by stealing her cheques.

Yesterday, her businessman son Richard Winchell said criminals like Simons were destroying the trust which Bermudians traditionally had for one another, which was why his mother had decided to prosecute.

?People are preying on the elderly and the elderly need to be protected,? Mr. Winchell told .

?My mother went through a whole process of whether she should even prosecute this case, but the sense was that if she didn?t do it, it would allow this sort of thing to go on.

?We are heading towards a Bermuda where people who would help people and give them a glass of water, will not help and will lock up their doors.

?So in that sense, the sentence was good. You are deluding yourself if you think crime isn?t an increasing concern.

?Fortunately this wasn?t a violent crime, it was a theft. I feel sorry for all those folks who are injured every day by criminals.?