A 20-year-old man who scammed a Radlett couple out of more than £70,000 has been given a three year custodial sentence.

Redwan Hussain, of East London, who admitted to conspiring to commit fraud by making false representation, appeared at St Albans Crown Court on Thursday.

The court heard how Hussain, of Pigott Street, Limehouse, was a member of a gang of phone scammers, who preyed on the elderly couple and defrauded them.

On four occasions he called the couple's home in Radlett to collect bundles of money from them, which he said were to be checked for fingerprints by the police.

In the space of a week, an 85-year-old man and his 88-year-old wife were tricked into handing over £70,000 from their savings.

Hussain was eventually caught and arrested after the police were tipped off by the couple's bank.

Ann Evans, prosecuting told how on November 27, a man pretending to be a police officer from Essex rang the couple at their home.

He claimed that an employee of Barclays Bank had been using their account to purchase items and they needed to cancel their bank cards. The next day, the same man pretending to be a PC Johnson rang the wife and said someone had been arrested.

The man then claimed that the police needed to check bank notes for fingerprints and fake currency and asked for £5,000 to be withdrawn from their account and that someone would call round to collect it later.

Miss Evans said: "Sad to say she was completely taken in and withdrew the money from the account, which was collected later by an Asian-looking male."

The court heard the bank called the police after concerns were raised about the money being withdrawn. As a result, an officer from Hertfordshire Constabulary went to speak to the couple.

However, because the bogus officer had told the couple over the phone about a need for the "utmost secrecy", they would not talk to the real officer about what was happening. Instead they claimed they had withdrawn the money to give to their son for Christmas.

Miss Evans said it meant the gang were able, in the days that followed, to make more requests for money and in the course of a week, the couple lost more than £70,000.

On December 5, the couple were again asked to take out £25,000, which they did. The bank once more tipped off the police, who this time went to the couple's home and gave them a dummy package to hand over to the caller.

The police then waited and saw a taxi arrive outside - the defendant got out of the back, and after he took the package, he was arrested.

In an interview, Miss Evans said Hussain would not say who the other phone scammers were, just that he is going to plead guilty as he knows what he did was wrong.

Judge Marie Catterson, on hearing the case, was told that Hussain's role had been that of a courier, who was paid £150 for each trip he was asked to make to the couple's home. He was now said to be remorseful for what he did.

Hussain was sentenced to be detained for three years in a young offenders' institute.

Passing the sentence, Judge Catterson said: "This conspiracy involved significant planning and was sustained over a period of time and deliberately targeted victims on the basis of their vulnerability."