Burglars posing as engineers from the water board stole cash from a pensioner’s home in Great Gransden yesterday (Wednesday).

The victim, a woman in her 80s, heard the doorbell ring at about 2.30pm at her home in Mandene Gardens, went to answer it and was met by a friend.

She noticed a man stood directly behind her friend who followed her into the house before she could stop him.

The man told her he was from the water board and that there had been an incident at the top of the road with a broken pipe.

He went on to say that he needed to check the water in the taps as they would be putting a chemical through it. He then ran the tap in the kitchen, before insisting he needed to check the taps upstairs and that the two women needed to go with him.

As they made their way upstairs, a second man entered the house.

On returning downstairs, the second man had made his way into the house, into the dining room and was looking at the wall hangings and asked if they were valuable.

The men left a short while after, but the woman noticed £150 in cash was missing.

The two men are both described as white, between 21 to 40 years old, wearing trilby hats and poorly fitted clothing.

A police spokesman said: “This was a very distressing ordeal for the two women who were very scared. Thankfully they saw straight away that it was a scam and called the police as soon as they could.

“We would urge anyone who has information about this incident to contact us.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.