MINNEAPOLIS — A Minnesota woman was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison for swindling an elderly couple out of their life savings.

Carolyn Jean Cassar, 61, of Rochester received a sentence 14 months longer than federal court guidelines but two years fewer than what prosecutors had sought.

“This level of cold-blooded manipulation is beyond what even a normal fraudster exhibits,” U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen told Cassar, who stood silently next to her attorney. Ericksen added, “You knew what you were doing to the victims.”

Cassar pleaded guilty in July to bilking her neighbors out of $840,000 over six years, using ever-more elaborate lies as she asked for increasing amounts of money.

From 2006 to 2012, Cassar borrowed money from the couple in 375 transactions, the Star Tribune reported.