Awful cases come before our courts every single day - but some crimes are particularly upsetting due to the vulnerability of their elderly victims.
These heartless crimes show there are no depths that some criminals won't sink to, including, sadly, targeting the vulnerable.
From one man caught stealing from his own nan, to organised campaigns of burglary specifically targeting pensioners- the ECHO has documented some of the most cowardly and vile crimes to come before the courts.
Sadly, there are many examples of the elderly being at the receiving end of such disgusting criminality.
Cases often involve criminals exploiting their victims' trusting nature for their own, often financial, gain.
Here are some of the vile crimes that have specifically targeted pensioners on Merseyside that have outraged our readers in recent months.
'Distraction burglar' who spent four decades stealing from vulnerable retired and disabled people
Antonio Hall was jailed for eight years after burgling the homes of seven pensioners aged between 73 and 95 back in January.
Hall was on licence at the time, having been released from jail in July 2018, midway through a seven-year sentence for 19 of these horrible burglaries.
He has targeted vulnerable retired and disabled across Merseyside for the best part of four decades.
He has 21 convictions for 42 offences and was described in court as "a distraction burglar who preys on the elderly".
At his sentencing hearing, a top judge described his apology to his victims as as "hollow".
Judge Anil Murray said: "I don't accept that [the apology] for one moment and I'm sure those words are hollow words.
"If you had any remorse in your body you would have stopped taking advantage of elderly people a long time ago, but you keep doing it over and over. "
Woman stole blind OAP's pension
Nicola Hitchmough offered to go shopping for a blind woman at risk from coronavirus just so she could steal her pension.
The thief previously helped the disabled 66-year-old cross the road, near her sheltered accommodation in Edge Hill.
By doing so she learned the name of the OAP, who is blind in one eye and has very limited sight in the other.
Hitchmough, 39, then tricked her way into the complex where she lived before searching out the victim's flat on April 14.
The crook stole around £369 of her pension money - some of which she returned when challenged by the woman.
The OAP said Hitchmough entered the "sanctuary" of her home and the theft was "despicable".
Hitchmough was jailed for three years.
Brothers stole pensioner's car, blue badge and walking stick
Brothers Stephen and Daniel Yates broke into the home of a disabled 88-year-old woman and made off with her mobility car in a despicable burglary.
The pair entered the OAP's Prescot home while she slept upstairs, and stole the keys to her Peugeot 108 leaving her housebound over Christmas
They also took her handbag containing her drivers licence as well as her blue badge and walking stick.
Stephen, 36, and Daniel, 28, as well as a third unknown mad, were thought to have gained access to the house by smashing a kitchen window on December 13 last year.
The pensioner, told the court that the incident her left her feeling "numb".
The pair were both jailed for three years each.
Carer who stole over £200k from 93-year-old
A carer who stole almost a quarter of a million pounds from a frail 93-year-old woman splashed the cash buying her daughter a new car.
When police finally caught up with Christine Barber and she opened the door to them she said: “It’s to do with that bloody woman, isn’t it?”
Liverpool Crown Court heard Barber “bled her almost dry” by obtaining her bank details and emptying her accounts of £222,742, leaving her virtually destitute.
The 57-year-old defendant, who even opened a mobile banking account to access the pensioner’s current account, repeatedly took out large sums from her victim’s three savings accounts.
As well as paying fees for Bangor University she bought her daughter a £9,000 Renault Clio car.
Jailing Barber for two years, Judge David Aubrey, QC, said that the victim, who has since died, had been "in the autumn of her life, was elderly and vulnerable."
Purse thief who targeted pensioners while they were shopping
Sharon Rooney, 49, was spared jail despite admitting stealing purses from multiple pensioners and a disabled women while they were out shopping back in November.
The single mum-of-five had already targeted eight victims at supermarkets in Widnes and Warrington last year.
Rooney, of Jubilee Crescent, Haydock, has 42 past convictions for 101 offences, including a staggering 62 matters of theft.
In court, the sobbing crook said she only stole to provide for her children - some of whom have difficulties - after her benefits were reduced.
Judge Murray handed her 16 months in prison, suspended for two years, with a 35-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement.
He imposed a Criminal Behaviour Order, banning her from all Morrisons supermarkets and an Aldi store in Clock Face, St Helens.
The four-year order also bans Rooney from Widnes, except for three A roads, and from Warrington, "other than use of the motorway network".
Teenagers stole OAP's mobility car
A bunch of yobs were locked up after they stole posed for selfies in an OAP's stolen motability car.
Lennon Lowry, then 17, Callum Carr, 22, and Jack O'Connor 18, stole a Nissan X-Trail from a Wirral woman who cares for her elderly mum.
The gang crept into the home in Rivington Road, Wallasey, where the woman and her 89-year-old mum slept.
Within hours of the raid, the car had been filled with stolen petrol and fitted with stolen licence plates, and it was then used for a robbery where they threatened a boy and stole his phone.
Police spotted the Nissan and tracked it through the Birkenhead tunnel to Islington, where they chased the car at high speed.
Lowry drove through two sets of red lights, collided with one police car, then smashed into another police vehicle when officers boxed him in.
The said that the incident had left her wanting to leave her home of 50 years because she is so afraid.
Her daughter's handbag was also taken, containing a gold watch given to her by her own daughter for her 60th birthday, and three coats in the car.
Lowry was sentenced to two and a half years in a young offenders institution, while O'Connor and Carr were locked up for two years eight months and four years ten months respectively.
Burglar waged eight month campaign against pensioner
Joseph McFarlane, from Liscard, repeatedly terrorised a 72-year-old man after targeting his home multiple times in the space of just eight months.
A court heard how the 36-year-old repeatedly visited his victim's home in Chester, leaving him distressed and terrified.
Back in February he was jailed for five years at Chester Crown Court and was also handed and indefinite restraining order.
In July 2019 McFarlane kicked the front door of the man’s house two or three times while he was inside.
He was finally arrested after breaking into the man's home on Wednesday, September 4.
Grandson caught stealing from his own nan
Jordan Edwardson stole almost £8,500 from his own nan after she put a roof over his head.
Edwardson was staying with his 77-year-old partially sighted nan in Southport when he stole bank cheques and tried to cash them in to buy crack cocaine and heroin.
After that failed, he then used her bank and credit cards 50 times, meaning he had stolen from her on multiple occasions.
During a court appearance in March, Judge Neil Flewitt said it was "hard to image anybody stooping lower than somebody who steals from his own grandmother."
Edwardson had 13 previous convictions for 23 offences, and he admitted a further two counts of fraud.
He was jailed for two years.
