Three men helped a son clear out his dead mother’s home – before making off with £800 cash.

Police are investigating the shocking claim by 49-year-old lorry driver Paul Carter.

He and his wife Denise, 51, were surprised when three men stopped their van at his mother Alma’s bungalow last Tuesday.

"It's absolutely despicable..." - Denise Carter

The 88-year-old great-grandmother, who died the week before, was something of a hoarder, so the family had three skips outside her home in Broomcroft Road, Rainham.

Denise said the men appeared from nowhere, flashed papers with something like “environmental services” written on them, and offered to clean up.

She said: “We didn’t look properly because we just weren’t thinking straight. You are still in mourning, you’re in shock and you’ve got this uphill battle.”

But after six hours making several trips back and forth the men vanished – as did Paul’s iPhone and Denise’s handbag, containing £800 which Paul had found stashed away in his mother’s kitchen.

“It’s absolutely despicable,” said Denise. “The phone had been on charge and my handbag was in the cupboard, so we can’t have lost them. They just came up and said ‘we could help you’.

“They said they were going to get their money through re-selling some of the stuff we were getting rid of.”

The theft came two days before Mrs Carter’s funeral.