A good samaritan who found cash outside Primark tried to hand it in, but quickly changed her mind when the manager said it would go straight into the store’s coffers.

Diana Comfort was out shopping with daughter Moira when she stumbled across an £80 wad of folded notes directly outside the clothing store’s doors in Chatham High Street.

Miss Comfort, 30, who works as a freelance manager at sports events, said: “Mum was doubly devastated. Firstly that somebody had lost all that money, especially so close to Christmas.

“But then when she took it into the store to ask if they could take care of it in case anybody came in to claim it, or donate it to charity if they did not, the manager refused and said it would go ‘straight into the till’.

“She was absolutely disgusted. We couldn’t believe that even after asking them directly if they could give it to charity, they still said no.

“We initially asked to see, or for them to check, the CCTV footage to see if they could get a picture of whoever dropped the cash, but they refused that, too.

“One of the girls working there just said ‘take the money to the police station or donate it yourself’, so that’s exactly what we did.”

But earlier this year Kent Police announced they no longer consider lost property as a police matter, and now refuse to take in lost items – including cash – unless they are thought to be linked to a crime. The officers advised Mrs Comfort to keep the money and put out a Facebook appeal, or donate it to charity if nobody came forward.

After leaving it several weeks in case anybody claimed it, the 67-year-old decided to donate it to the Medway Foodbank.

They contacted project manager Ian Childs to see what, if any, food they still required for Christmas as the mum and daughter duo were even willing to spend some precious time in the run up to Christmas doing a big shop with the money.

But with the food bank set to become a charity next year, and with bills to pay to sustain the service, he gratefully accepted the donation.

A spokesman for Primark said: “Primark’s policy relating to lost cash requires management to secure any money handed in in the store’s safe until it is reclaimed by its rightful owner.

“Money which remains unclaimed at the end of each year is donated to charity.

“Unfortunately, on this occasion, the manager who dealt with the incident did not have the opportunity to fully explain this policy to the customer.”