ELDERLY people in Blackbird Leys are being warned to be on their guard as a bogus caller pretending to be a police officer continues to target them.

The man, who is 5ft 8in to 5ft 10in tall and thought to be in his early 30s, has made three further failed attempts at distraction burglary in the past few days.

The first was in Kersington Crescent on Monday at 11.25am and the other two both happened yesterday afternoon at 1pm in the Pegasus Road area and at 1.15pm in the nearby Sandy Lane area.

As with the three previous incidents in recent weeks, the caller claimed to be a CID officer wanting to install CCTV cameras and produced a fake police ID card.

Each time he was challenged by the resident, lost his nerve and left.

The man has short, sandy to light brown hair, is smart but casually dressed, has a southern accent and is stocky.

Det Sgt Marc Tarbit, from the Oxford Burglary team, said: "Because of the excellent actions of these residents this burglar has gone away empty-handed.

"But I want to repeat our advice for people not to let callers who attend without an appointment or don't have any identification on them into their homes. Please make sure you always ask people for ID and if you are at all unsure, don't let them in.

"Any real police officer will not mind if you ask their name and take time to call the police to verify that they are an officer. They also carry a photo ID card. If you are at all in doubt about the person at your door, and especially if they will not leave when asked, then call 999 immediately."

Relatives, friends, neighbours and carers are also urged to make sure elderly people are aware of this advice.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.