An elderly woman was tricked into handing over her bank cards by a conman posing as a police officer in what detectives describe as a “heartless scam”.

The woman from Fairlight was called on Tuesday night by a man claiming to be from Paddington Police Station in London.

He told her that there had been fraudulent activity on her bank cards and told her to contact her bank for advice.

She put the phone down and rang the number for her bank, but unknown to her the man had stayed on the line and pretended to be a bank worker.

He took her card details and then told her that a courier would call to collect the cards.

Around 11pm, a man collected the cards and they were used to withdraw cash from machines in Western Road and Devonshire Road in Bexhill.

Detective Inspector Rob Morland said: “This is a heartless scam.”

“Under no circumstances would the police or your bank request your PIN number over the telephone or arrange collection of bank cards from your home.”

Contact Sussex Police via 101 or email 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk quoting Operation Edisto if you have any information.