A woman who conned people out of money with bogus sob stories has been banned from the area around St George's Hospital in Tooting.

Jessica Smith, 29, formerly of Khartoum Road, Tooting, but now of-no-fixed abode, duped a man into giving her cash at the casualty department by claiming her mum had just had a stroke.

The victim, whose mother-in-law had just suffered a serious heart attack, gave her £19 after she promised to pay him back. But she gave him a false mobile phone number.

Her favourite yarn to elicit cash from people in the carpark was that her mum had been admitted with a heart attack and she had rushed to hospital without her purse and could not pay for parking.

Another ruse was that she was locked out of her flat and needed money for a taxi to Crawley, Sussex, so she could get a set of keys from her mum.

A variation on this story was that the fire brigade would charge her £150 to open her front door.

Smith is banned from entering an exclusion zone around the hospital so she cannot continue targeting patients and staff.

The anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) against her remains in force until December 2011. If she flouts it, she could be sent to prison for up to five years and fined.

The order was granted after a district judge sitting at South Western Magistrates Court heard evidence of Miss Smith's tales of woe.

She is also prevented from "begging, seeking alms or charitable donations by way of misrepresentation anywhere within England and Wales".

The case was brought to court by the council's anti-social behaviour unit.