Pensioner labels thief ‘disgusting’

A man who dressed as an elderly woman to steal over £11,000 from a pensioner’s bank account has been branded “disgusting” by his victim.

The middle-aged man put on a wig, make-up, a camel coat and ladies scarf to withdraw cash from the 76-year-old’s – identified only as Agnes – savings.

The individual targeted Royal Bank of Scotland branches in Glasgow city centre and Cleland, North Lanarkshire earlier this month where staff signed off on withdrawals totalling thousands of pounds before raising concerns over his ‘squared-jaw’.

The man then proceeded to pose as a bank employee over the telephone, obtaining over £11,000 in total.

The fraudster had called the elderly cleaner, who still works 18 hours a week, and told her to contact her local branch as there was a problem with her debit card.

The victim then attempted to call RBS unaware the original caller had yet to hang up. The conman, pretending to be a bank employee, had the pensioner reveal her pin and arranged for her card to be collected by a courier, who was also a part of the scam.

When her card was handed in to an RBS branch a few days later, the pensioner was left devastated to discover she had been a victim of fraud.

She said: “Words cannot describe it. I was shaking. I have been working all my days and someone can do that in two or three days. It’s disgusting, absolutely.

“I was absolutely disgusted that people would go to these lengths to take some old person’s money.”

Strathclyde Police constable Alan Mulholland, a community safety officer, said: “No bank in Scotland or England will ever ask for your pin number. It’s just not done.

“If this happens to you or if you know anyone this has happened to, they must go to the bank and they will put meas- ures in place to stop any activity on your account.”