An elderly Shropshire couple lost thousands of pounds when scammers stole their debit card and pin number at a supermarket.

The couple, from Shrewsbury, who do not wish to be named, have since been refunded by their bank, but are warning other vulnerable people to look out for the scammers who were operating outside the town’s Morrisons store.

Today the couple’s son said his parents were “shaken” and left “angered” by the incident which happened last month.

He said: “My parents, an elderly, deaf, infirm 80-year-old couple, were recently victims of a callous but very clever scam whilst shopping at Morrisons supermarket in Shrewsbury.

“Approached by a woman asking for change of a £2 coin for the trolley, my mother opened her purse to see if she could help.

“The woman, smartly dressed and of eastern European descent, reached into the purse to help herself, my mother actually knocked the woman’s hand away, but then completed the transaction.”

Later in the day he said his mother realised her debit card was missing and it was discovered £200 cash and two large transactions amounting to several thousand pounds had been carried out on the card.

“The matter was reported to the police and the bank instigated their own inquiries via their internal fraud department,” he said. “Investigations discovered that the woman had palmed the card during the kerfuffle.

“A male accomplice, who had been standing behind my parents in the check-out queue, had noted the pin number of the card on his mobile phone.

“Ten days later, the money has thankfully been re-instated into the account by the bank, but it is most upsetting.

“You can imagine how my parents must feel and how angry I am that this has happened to my elderly parents.”

Richard Ewels, West Mercia Police spokesman, said: “We were contacted by a woman from Shrewsbury on November 23 who was asking for a reference number to enable her bank to investigate several transactions in which money had been taken from her account. The matter appeared to have been investigated by the bank.”

No-one was available for comment from Morrisons.

By Andrew Morris