West Bromwich widow, 90, duped out of £500 in elaborate con

A 90-year-old widow was duped out of £500 in a "despicable" distraction burglary that saw the thief phone ahead first.

A man claiming to be from BT phoned the pensioner at her home in Greenfield Road, West Bromwich, telling her she owed the company £6.

He then turned up at her home at 8.30pm holding a chip-and-pin machine and told her to pay the charge via her bank card.

Once the victim had put in her card and pin, the burglar left the house with the bank card still in the machine.

A total of £500 was then withdrawn from her account and the card cancelled. The elaborate con, which happened on Tuesday, was one of four this week across Sandwell.

Bogus callers pretending to be from the water board or council tricked a resident in Ferndale Avenue, Great Barr, on Tuesday. Two distraction burglaries were also carried out on Monday at 2.45pm in Austin Walk, West Bromwich, and 4.50pm in Waring Road, Tipton.

Police said they were now investigating links between the crimes but the chip-and-pin thief had acted entirely differently to the other burglars.

All of the cases have been passed on to West Midlands Police's Criminal Investigation Unit, which will look for patterns and links between them.

The chip-and-pin thief is a mixed race man with short hair and he was wearing casual clothing.

Chief Inspector Karl Fellows, operations manager from West Bromwich police station said: "This is a despicable crime on a vulnerable victim. We would appeal to anyone with information to call their local neighbourhood team."