Conmen sink to depth of cruelty.

First they attempted to dupe a Burbage woman in her 80s by saying her son had been badly hurt in a car crash.

Then they stole £500 from an elderly Pewsey couple, money that they had been putting by for a family celebration of their diamond anniversary.

Charles and Yvonne Elkins, who have 11 children, had been saving a few pounds from their pension each week and hid it under a mattress at their home in The Crescent in readiness for their 60th wedding anniversary next April.

Mrs Elkins, 77, was out shopping on Monday afternoon when her husband, who will be 80 at Christmas, found a man in their home who claimed he had knocked on the door before entering.

The caller claimed to be a plumber working next door and he showed retired farmworker Mr Elkins what looked like an identity card.

Mr Elkins said: "He said that next door had a leak on their washing machine and they needed to check our pipes in the kitchen."

The man stood by Mr Elkins as he cleared the cupboard under the sink to get to the pipes. Glancing around, the pensioner saw a second man emerge from a bedroom.

Mr Elkins said: "He whispered something to the first man and then they left the house."

Mrs Elkins was just returning home when the two men fled through the back door. A check of the house revealed that £500 had been stolen from a wallet hidden under their mattress.

Mr Elkins said: "We have been saving towards our diamond wedding next year." He said he was 'feeling terrible' because he had been duped when he thought he was doing his neighbours a favour.

He told police that the first man was aged 30-40, spoke with a northern or Scottish accent and was stockily built with short brown hair and wearing a light coloured short jacket.

The accomplice was aged 25-40, also stocky, with short fair hair and was wearing a red top under a dark jacket.

Anyone who saw two men in the area The Crescent at about 4pm on Monday is asked to contact WPC Michelle Haley at Pewsey police station on (01672) 562222.

Meanwhile, police officers in Marlborough have been sickened by the cruel ruse used by conmen as they tried to persuade the Burbage pensioner to open her front door.

They told her that her son was lying badly injured in hospital following a car crash and they had come to take her to his bedside.

However, the pensioner was not fooled by the bogus good Samaritans although she does have a son.

Police said she wisely refused to take the chain off her door and let them into her house.

They said that of all the ploys used by crooks to steal from pensioners this was by far the most cruel method they had come across.

WPC Emma Brown, who is investigating the incident, said they are convinced it was a sick way of trying to gain access to the pensioner's home and praised her for sticking by the rules, keeping her security chain fastened to prevent her door being pushed open and refusing admission to the strangers.

The woman, who has asked not to be identified, was in her home on Tuesday afternoon last week when she heard a knock at her door and found two men standing outside.

WPC Brown said: "She answered the door to the men who said they had come from the scene of an accident and that her son had been seriously hurt in a car crash.

"One of the men said they had been sent to collect her and take her to hospital to be with her badly injured son.

"She kept the chain on her door and questioned the men, asking why they were there.

"She was not happy with what they said but she did not panic and kept her chain on the door refusing to allow them into her home.

"When she said she was going to phone the police and the hospital to check on their story they got spooked and they ran off."

Unfortunately, said the WPC, the pensioner was not able to get a good look at the men because she could only see them through the narrow slit between the door and door frame because of the security chain.

WPC Brown said the old lady was left shocked and distressed by both the attempt to get into her home and by being told that her son had been hurt in a car crash, which subsequent inquiries revealed was untrue.

The officer said: "I have never heard of anything like this before. What was particularly distressing was the story they gave the lady."

Wiltshire police press officer Graham Chivers said he was disgusted at the ruse used by the men in attempting to gain access to the women's home.

He said: "This displays the despicable lengths these people will go to in their attempts to get into pensioners' homes."

Earlier this year police launched a Beat the Bogus Caller campaign to make elderly people aware of the need to be alert when strangers call.