THE victims of a dating website fraudster who conned £37,000 from people he met through dating sites and at hospitals have labelled him a "weasel and a snake".

David Coombs, of no fixed abode, was jailed four years at Southampton Crown Court on Wednesday after pleading guilty to nine counts of fraud, which netted him in the region of £37,000.

The court was told the 52-year-old would strike up relationships, mainly with women, before telling them his wallet had been stolen or his bank card had been blocked, making his victims feel continually obliged to help him pay for dinner, hotel rooms and living expenses.

Prosecuting, Richard Onslow said he struck up a relationship with a woman in a psychiatric ward, when she at her most vulnerable, and convinced her to lend him £7,500 over the course of a few months together.

Coombs met two of his victims at a bar and when the one had her leg amputated at a Hampshire hospital he sat by her bedside most days keeping her company. Then he started asking her for money and at one point even got her to withdraw £150 from a hospital cashpoint.

Mr Onslow said the defendant also convinced the amputee's 83-year-old mother to lend him £930 for a hotel bill and house deposit.

Coombs' brother - Michael Coombs, 55, and his wife Barbara, 65, said the conman had also targeted his own family.

Speaking after the sentence, Michael said: "It should be something more, it has split the family up.

"We still believe that when he comes out he will do it again - it is all he knows. I think David knew if he pleaded guilty he would get a lighter sentence.

"I think he is a horrible person and that he needs psychiatric help."

Carol-Anne Board, 52. found herself and her four children homeless after the defendant took a £550 deposit from her for a house he that he claimed to own and was going to rent to her.

Carol-Anne said she would have been happy if Coombs' had got the maximum sentence of six years.

"He was very charming, he seemed very kind and considerate... He is actually a weasel and a snake - a chameleon who can adapt to anyone's vulnerability," she added.

"It went down to four years because of his early guilty plea, he will only serve half of that which is two years. He has been held on remand for two month - that counts as four months.

"He will be out within a year and a half and I know he will do it again.

"I am a single mother-of-four. This has affected me and all my family. It took us a year to get our lives back on track financially."