A FAKE police officer conned a pensioner into handing over cash from her bank account.

The sophisticated con artist called the 80-year-old pretending to be a Metropolitan Police Officer and claimed he had arrested a man who had the woman’s bank card.

He said that somebody else from the police would call her back later with details on what to do next.

That afternoon, on Wednesday this week, she then got a call from another fake police officer – this time pretending they were from Thames Valley Police and based at Didcot Police Station.

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The fraudster told the woman, who is from Oxford, that she needed to go to the bank and withdraw her cash.

They said that somebody would go to her house that evening and pick it up.

At 6pm an Asian man arrived pretending to be another police officer.

The man, who is in his 30s, was wearing a dark overcoat at the time.

He is described as 5ft 8ins tall, of medium build, with short dark hair.

He took the cash from her and said that somebody would pick her up the next day at 10am and take her to court.

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But no-one came to collect the woman the next morning.

Police warned, in an online appeal, that the scam is not new.

Fraudsters trick people into thinking they are police officers and ask the victims to withdraw cash. They say that a courier will pick it up and that they will call back to get a 'statement'.

By the time that people get suspicious, they are 'long gone'.