A WARNING has been issued by police after a disabled elderly couple were duped out of cash by two conmen posing as maintenance workers.

Alice and Monty Theobald were returning from a shopping trip when they were greeted on their doorstep by a man claiming he was from the water board.

According to Mrs Theobald, the man explained a water pipe had been drilled through by accident and he was checking surrounding supplies to homes in the area.

Mrs Theobald, 90, said: "I had no reason not to believe him. He said he had been waiting for us to get home and he had checked three of our neighbours' supplies."

While the man was in the kitchen running water from the tap Mrs Theobald left the room to go upstairs when she was confronted with a second man coming down the stairs.

The grandmother-of-two said: "I asked him what he was doing and he explained he was checking upstairs and as there is a tank up there, I thought nothing of it."

The pair then left telling the couple everything was fine but explaining they could be entitled to a refund of £15 for the water they had used up while checking the system.

Mrs Theobald, who is partially sighted said: "I thought it seemed like a lot of money for water. Then he asked for my pension book so he could take the number and have the refund paid to us but I told him we get all that done through the bank so he didn't get his hands on it.

"It was only when they had gone that Monty went to his wallet and found it empty. I then went straight upstairs t check where I keep the money for the gas bills and all that was gone too."

In all around £160 was taken from the Droxford cottage on High Street where the couple have lived for 50 years while two rooms were left ransacked after the thief rifled through clothes and coat pockets looking for valuables.

The couple, who are both retired from the fire service with whom they served during the Second World War, were left shaken by the incident.

Mrs Theobald said: "We were thunderstruck to be honest but after it sunk in we were just glad they took money rather than any of our personal belongings with sentimental value."

Police have condemned the incident that happened between 6.45pm and 7.15pm on Wednesday, as dispicable and are appealing for witnesses to come forward as well as warning people to be on their guard.

Investigating officer Det Con Norman Bundy said: "I think society should do more to protect elderly people like this from become victims and should treat this sort of crime very seriously when it happened.

"These sorts of vultures who target elderly people are looking for an easy target, they literally drive around see who they can target so if anyone has any information or witnessed anything that night then please get in touch with police."