A tearful 90-year-old woman has told how a callous gang duped her and stole hundreds of pounds from her bedroom drawer.

Three teenagers - two girls and one boy - knocked on Connie Langford's door in Little Lullaway, Laindon, pretending they needed a bit of paper to write a note to their own grandmother who lived next door and wasn't in.

While the two girls, aged around 16, distracted her by asking for a glass of water the boy nipped upstairs and stole just under £500 of her pension money and savings.

And he managed to slip into her kitchen and snatch £30 from her purse. Since last Thursday's theft Connie, who can barely walk, has been left with only 75p and won't pick up her next pension payout until this Thursday.

She said: "They are wicked, how could they do this to an old woman? "It nearly killed me when I realised my money had gone.