KEY POINTS:
A six-woman crimewave robbed Constance Grimwood of her health.
The 85-year-old had been visiting the shops in January last year, and was heading to her Sunnynook, North Shore, home with a Chinese takeaway meal and a lime milkshake when a stranger told her she had dropped something from her car.
As she searched under the vehicle, her handbag was stolen.
Her granddaughter Sharon Hughes says the stress of the robbery left Mrs Grimwood suffering heart problems, for which she was admitted to hospital.
It also robbed her of her independence and made her lose faith in the community.
"If nana wasn't at home, you could see her driving to Whangaparaoa ... After this happened, that all stopped. She wouldn't leave the house.
"Nana was dead by March."
Ms Hughes was at yesterday's sentencing of the six women involved in the scam.
"They're pathetic," she said of the women. "They were sitting there like they were sitting in the headmaster's office."
The women, aged 19 to 39 years and members of the same family, spent 10 months from October 2005 prowling the supermarkets, malls and carparks of the North Shore stealing bags, cash and credit cards from mostly elderly shoppers.
Five of the women received prison sentences and a sixth is undergoing supervision for the $170,000 theft and fraud operation.
Some days the group would engineer vehicle collisions to distract their targets. On others, one member would ask directions of an elderly citizen while another member carried out the theft.
The group robbed an 87-year-old fundraiser working a sausage sizzle, and on another day relieved a church honesty box of its contents.
The ringleader, Kathleen Howard, 39, of Beach Haven, later told authorities she had a P addiction, which was making it difficult to put food on the table.
Most of her profits were spent on cellphones, cameras and alcohol, it was revealed at yesterday's North Shore District Court hearing.
Asking unsuspecting shoppers to help look for an imaginary lost child was a popular ruse, and on occasions a 12-year-old was used as a decoy.
Another woman present at yesterday's hearing said she had returned to her office one day to find one of the gang - Jaymie Tuki - on her hands and knees rifling through her bag.
Kathleen Howard was just out of prison - having served a six-month term for similar offending - when she began the thefts, and had 36 previous fraud convictions.
The Herald last night contacted Mrs Grimwood's daughter, Trish De Mars, at work in her Carterton store.
She is still "livid" at what happened to her mother, who went from being healthy and energetic to "that full of pills she damn near rattled when she walked".
Ms De Mars believed the women were "cold-blooded and heartless and gutless" and the sentences were too light. "The only thing that would make me happy about them being in prison would be if I had the key."
The Gang
Kathleen Howard: 64 charges totalling $63,000 (30 victims). 3 1/2 years' jail sentence (26-month minimum).
Jaymie Tuki: 46 charges totalling $45,000 (25 victims). 2 years 10 months' jail sentence (17-month minimum).
Karalee Kelly: 29 charges totalling $34,000 (16 victims). 20 months' jail sentence (14-month minimum).
Tanya Howard: 13 charges totalling $33,000. 17 months' jail sentence.
Denise Howard: 20 charges totalling $23,000. 17 months' jail sentence.
Tui Bradley: 4 charges totalling $3000. 12 months' supervision.
