Old lady tricked and robbed on Tesco car park, Sudden

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An elderly lady was tricked into giving “directions” to a pair of callous robbers who made off with her bank cards, subsequently spending £1,000 of her money.

The conniving pair stalked the lady, 69, as she entered her pin into the cash machine at Tesco, Sudden on Saturday 23 January, before following her to her car and pretending to need directions.

As one man distracted her with a conversation, the other took her purse and all her bank cards before making a maximum withdrawal of £300 in cash, and two large card payments at Argos, totalling at £929.

Jessica Hallet, the granddaughter of the lady, told Rochdale Online News that her gran was “very upset” once she realised what had happened, not least because she was tricked into thinking she was helping someone.

She added: “She is the type of person who always helps people. It is disgusting what happened to her. She is normally so independent, doing everything for herself, she didn’t really want to go shopping again after what happened to her.

“She wasn’t hurt, she was just shaken up. People need to know that these things are happening in Rochdale, we don’t want more elderly people being targeted. The police should be taking action now”.

A spokesperson from Greater Manchester Police said there is currently no CCTV footage of the incident. She added: “We were called on 24 January after reports that a distraction theft had taken place.

“An elderly lady was packing her shopping into the back of the car when she was approached and asked for directions. Her bank cards were stolen along with her pin number, and transactions were made afterwards”.

Investigations are ongoing.