A CROSS-dressing fraudster who preyed on Barnet residents by calling at their doors and giving false stories to obtain money has pleaded guilty to a string of offences.

Forty-year-old transsexual male Amanda Greenwood, of Victoria Road, Barnet, pleaded guilty at Hendon Magistrates Court to one offence of burglary, eight counts of fraud and two offences of failing to appear.

Greenwood used a variety of stories such as she had to take her daughter to hospital and did not have any cash, or that her home was cold and she needed money for the meter.

On one occasion, Greenwood snatched money out of the hands of an elderly man who days before she had persuaded to give her £14 for a taxi fare. Greenwood appeared very upset when she called at the house of the 85-year-old victim on November 12. The sympathetic victim agreed to lend her the cash and Greenwood promised to return.

She returned two weeks later and said she had come to repay the money. But when the victim went to get some change, Greenwood walked into the house, snatched £40 in notes from the elderly man’s hand, and ran off.

On October 28, 2010 Greenwood visited a house in Brunswick Avenue and told the elderly owner she needed £11 cash to pay a taxi driver. She wrote a cheque for the victim, but the cheque was later returned by the bank having been stopped.

On November 7, Greenwood called at a house in Manor Drive and claimed her daughter had been taken ill at a party and had been brought home in a taxi. She claimed she needed £24 to pay the taxi driver and the woman victim gave Greenwood £25. Having given her address, Greenwood said she would return the money the next day.

But when she failed to appear, the victim visited the address and was told by the occupants they had never heard of Greenwood.

The investigating officer in the case, Detective Constable Aileen Davies, described Greenwood as a prolific offender with a long history of dishonesty.

She said: "Greenwood has habitually preyed on elderly and vulnerable victims for a long time.

"She employed a string of lies regarding sick children in order to take full advantage of their sympathy and humanity. These victims are good people who have tried their best to assist a person whom they believed to be in distress.

"Unfortunately, that person was Greenwood who is a calculating and callous individual with no concern for the impact of her actions upon his victims."

Greenwood will be sentenced on April 14.