An elderly victim has been conned out of £7,700 by telephone fraudsters pretending to be Metropolitan Police officers.

The Witham woman was called last Thursday by a man claiming to be Det Sgt John Bowley from Charing Cross police station.

He told the victim that police were investigating suspected fraud linked to her bank account, and asked the woman to withdraw money from her account for forensic tests.

In total, £31,980 has been taken from six victims in Essex in April.

The victim from Witham was told to withdraw the money from a branch in Chelmsford, rather than her local bank, and a courier was later sent to collect it.