A 90-YEAR-OLD is devastated after a thief stole £1,000 she had saved to buy Christmas presents for her great-grandchildren.

Vera Adams, known as Betty to her friends, was sitting on her favourite bench near her Brighton home when a woman took the money she had saved from her pension out of her bag.

The widowed Kemp Town resident said she is no longer looking forward to Christmas as she is unable to purchase her young great-grandchildren presents.

Betty, who has been saving up the money for nearly a year, said: “I don’t understand why they have done this to me.

“They stole all my savings and they don’t care.

“I wanted to buy the children sweets and toys from Marks and Spencer.

“Now I don’t know whether I want to visit them because I haven’t got anything to give them.”

Betty described the thief as a woman in her 30s with dark-red hair.

She made conversation with Betty to distract her while she took the money from her bag.

She said: “I picked up the bag and I thought ‘oh this feels very light’.

“I normally sit on that bench to get a bit of air and have a chat with other people.

“But I’m not sure about doing that for now.”

Betty’s husband died six years ago and she has been in-and-out of hospital after a stroke in 2015.

Betty said: “I’ve been very ill but have been getting better recently and now this happens.

“I had to stay at my daughter’s house for a couple of days.”

Residents in her block of flats have come together to help Betty,

They have bought flowers to cheer her up and have started a fundraising internet page to help her get some money back for Christmas.

Betty’s neighbour, 33-year-old Hannah Hammond, said: “My husband told me what happened so I went downstairs to make sure she was okay.

“We set the crowdfunding page up so we could get a little bit of money back for her.

“I wanted to raise the money so she could have a nice Christmas.”

The fundraiser has already raised £285.

To donate click here.

A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “Sussex Police attended an incident where a woman had her purse stolen from inside her bag about 1.15pm on Wednesday, October 17.

“A 25-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of theft from the person of another and possession of a class A drug.

“She was later released under investigation and the enquiries are continuing.”