Pensioner duped by bogus caller

Thieves tricked their way into a pensioner’s home in Belfast before robbing her, police revealed tonight.

The 77-year-old woman was duped by a bogus caller who claimed he was fixing broken water pipes in the Donegall Road area in the south of the city.

A young man called to the pensioner’s home some time between 12.30pm and 1pm this afternoon.

He told the woman that a sewer pipe was broken nearby and asked if he could check the plumbing in her home.

Both of them examined pipes in the kitchen and living room together while an accomplice entered the home, it is believed. After the man left the elderly woman discovered that three purses in her bedroom had been emptied of a substantial amount of cash.

The bogus caller is described as being between 5ft 5 inches and 5ft 6 inches tall, of slim build with swarthy skin, dark hair.

He was clean-shaven and was wearing a beige-coloured long-sleeved top at the time.

Detectives in south Belfast have asked anyone with information that could help their investigations to get in contact.