A conman who used the same ruse to target dozens of elderly churchgoers across the country, including two in North Somerset, has been jailed for five years.

Mark Rhodes duped vulnerable people out of cash by claiming he had been given their names by their local vicar and asking them for cash. He claimed it would be a short-term loan but never returned the money.

Police said the Scot was given loans varying from £10 to £400 and on occasions would accompany the householder to a cashpoint while they withdrew money.

He also conned other people by pretending his car had broken down and asking to use their Yellow Pages – but then stealing from them while he was in the house, Gloucester Crown Court heard yesterday.

Householders in Pill and Long Ashton were among those targeted from Cornwall to Scotland by the 26-year-old, of no fixed address.

He admitted eight offences of distraction burglary and eight of fraud and asked for 53 others to be taken into consideration.

Mary Harley, prosecuting, said the offences began in Scotland at the end of last year and then spread right through England from Northumberland, Derbyshire and East Anglia to Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Truro in Cornwall, between January and May this year.

The total Rhodes obtained from his victims was just over £8,200, she said.

Rhodes, who had a long criminal record of 36 offences for dishonesty dating back to 2001, had started on the 'tidal wave' of offences shortly after being released from his last jail term in Scotland in December 2008, the court heard.

He was finally arrested after his picture was shown on the May Bank Holiday edition of BBC's Crimewatch, featuring him as one of Britain's most wanted criminals. A landlady in Ipswich, Suffolk, where he was then staying, recognised him and contacted the programme and he was arrested.

Some of the victims, who were as old as their late 80s, had been left worried that their families would think them unable to continue independent living because of their gullibility, Mrs Harley said.

Lloyd Jenkins, defending, said: "This was a tidal wave of criminality.

"He says he is ashamed and sickened by his actions and he deserves whatever he gets."

Judge William Hart told Rhodes "You planned these offences and you showed a degree of sophistication and a great degree of persistence in carrying them out. Although you did not exclusively or even specifically target elderly and vulnerable victims it was inevitable such people would be prominent among your victims and when such people came into your path you exploited them ruthlessly, abusing their kindness and charity.

Det Con Leigh Bickerdyke of Gloucestershire police urged anyone who had been targeted by Rhodes but had not yet come forward to do so.