A SCAMMER took £140 from a pensioner by pretending she was collecting signatures on a petition.

Grandad Alan Garland had withdrawn his winter fuel allowance from a cash machine inside Natwest in Colchester High Street.

He moved to one of the cubicles to sort out the cash when he was approached by the woman who had a clipboard with signatures on.

While Mr Garland, 73, was distracted she grabbed the money and made off with it.

The grandfather, who worked as foreman on building projects for Colchester Council before his retirement, said he could not believe what had happened.

He said: “I went and took the money out from the machine because I realised the fuel allowance was in.

“I then went and sat in one of the cubicles and the girl walked in pretending she was dumb.

“She had a clipboard with something to sign and the money was on the table with some pamphlets.

“I saw her take the leaflets but was not taking too much notice.

“All of a sudden the money was missing.”

Mr Garland, who suffers from arthritis in his legs, tried to raise the alarm immediately but the thief had gone.

He is hopeful CCTV footage in the bank will lead to the woman being identified.

He said: “Where I was sitting there was a camera about 4ft away on the wall.

“I could not believe it had happened.

“She must have targeted me, seen me take the money out and decided to try and get it off me.

“At the time I did not twig exactly what was happening.

“Afterwards she ran out of the bank.

“I just can’t believe somebody would do it. It is terrible.”

Essex Police has launched an investigation into the incident, which took place at roughly 12.45pm on Saturday.

Mr Garland, of Linden Close, Colchester, said the woman was young slightly more than 5ft tall and eastern European in appearance.

He added: “I cannot blame the bank at all, they are always so busy and cannot keep an eye on everybody all of the time.

“They have helped the police to start looking into what happened.”

A spokesman for Essex Police confirmed they were searching for witnesses to the incident which is being treated as a distraction theft.

Anyone who saw anything is asked to call Colchester police station on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 quoting incident 505 of November 11.