Bogus callers posing as policemen con householders in burglaries
Published: 11:10, 20 March 2013
A bogus caller posing as a policeman has raided homes and stolen cash from vulnerable victims in their nineties.
The intruder was even caught red-handed by one 90-year-old woman in her kitchen at 11pm.
And on one occasion he fled through a bedroom window when he was disturbed stealing cash.
Now police are warning householders to be extra vigilant, after the four burglaries in the Folkestone, Canterbury and Dover areas.
The first was in the Broadmead village area of Folkestone at around 7pm on Monday March 4, when a 90-year-old man answered the door to a man who claimed to be a police officer investigating crime in the area.
He asked the victim to check his valuables before distracting him and fleeing with several hundred pounds in cash.
Then, last Thursday, at around 11pm, in Herne Bay Road, Whitstable, a 90-year-old woman found a man claiming to be a police officer in her kitchen.
He said he was investigating crime in the area, and asked her to check her belongings before stealing £200 in cash and a bank card.
On Monday this week, at around 7pm, a 91-year-old in Sandwich found a man claiming to be from the police in her hallway.
He left through a back window and the victim found several hundred pounds in cash had gone missing.
Just over an hour later, a couple in their 80s in St Margaret’s Bay, Dover, discovered a man in their living room.
When challenged, the man, who also claimed to be from the police, fled to their bedroom, before leaving through a window with what was later discovered to be a significant amount of stolen cash.
The suspect is described as white, between 5ft 1ins and 5ft 8ins tall, wearing a dark coat, dark trousers and dark shoes.
In some incidents, the offender was wearing a dark hat and sometimes spoke with a Liverpool or Scottish accent.
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KentOnline reporter