A young family’s Christmas has been ruined after they became the latest victims of a purse-snatching crimewave.

Maria Butcher, 20, burst into tears when she found that her purse – containing £200 of benefit money and cash put aside to buy presents for her one-year-old son – had been taken.

She is one of 59 people targeted by thieves in Maidstone town centre since the beginning of October. There have been seven arrests.

Victims have included a 91-year-old woman who had just collected her pension.

Maria, who lives in Warwick Place, Maidstone, with her partner Mark Tucker, 28, had her purse stolen while shopping in Quality Seconds on Tuesday last week.

She will not get paid again until two days before Christmas, so her festive plans for one-year-old Reece have been ruined.

She said: “They have ruined my Christmas. I had only gone into the shop because Reece’s hands were so cold and I thought I’d buy him some mittens.

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“I then saw they had a sale so I selected some Christmas presents.”

Her handbag was in Reece’s buggy while she browsed. When she got to the checkout, she discovered her purse was missing.

She said: “I just burst into tears. Both Mark and I are on benefit and I had my benefit of £191 and some money I had managed to save and was going to buy the presents.

“Now I have no money and no presents. I just want to warn everyone else. I would hate anyone to suffer like we have.”

She did not see anyone suspicious but said her buggy was surrounded by a lot of people.

Police are investigating.

In another incident, a woman was targeted by thieves two days before her 92nd birthday.

Brenda Hedley said her mother travelled into town from Loose on Tuesday to collect her pension from the Post Office.

She said: “She collected the £110 and put it in an envelope in her bag. She went to Marks & Spencer and took her purse out to pay for something.

“When she got on the bus she discovered the envelope had gone. We think someone might have followed her from the Post Office because why would someone steal an envelope unless they knew it contained money?”

She said her mother had been very distressed about the theft and had returned to the shop.

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In a third incident this week, Claire Bangs, 43, said she feared for the safety of her seven-week-old baby when two women in their 20s approached her baby Bethany’s buggy and began pushing and shoving as they were shopping in Primark on Saturday.

In the confusion, Mrs Bangs’ bag containing mobile phone, car and house keys, credit cards and camera with pictures of Bethany was taken from her shoulder.

Mrs Bangs’ husband, John, 45, had been shopping nearby with their eight-year-old twins and walked in to find her upset.

He said: “My wife was extremely distressed and still has panic attacks now. This has really trashed our Christmas.”

A similar theft was reported at Woolworths on Saturday.