A MUM says she is “utterly disgusted” with the schoolboys who snatched her purse as she struggled with shopping bags.

Kelly Paul, 34, was walking in Whitmore Way, Basildon, when her plastic shopping bag burst, and a group of teenagers began kicking her items of food in to the street.

As she knelt down to pick them up, one of the boys, dressed in a De La Salle School uniform, snatched her purse from her pushchair and ran off.

The purse contained about £170 in cash, which included her two-year-old son’s birthday money, bank cards and photographs of her daughter.

She is now offering a £50 reward for information leading to the apprehension of the person who took it.

She said: “I am just disgusted with the boys who did this.

“I want them to think about how they would feel if it was their mum this had happened to.”

The theft happened at about 3.30pm on Friday.

She said: “The bag was hanging on the pushchair and, as I was walking along, food items were dropping out. The boys from De La Salle started kicking the food into the road.

“I realised what was happening and went to pick up the food, because I was scared the things could cause an accident.

“That was when they took my purse.”

Ms Paul has contacted the headteacher at De La Salle School and hopes to speak to pupils to ask them to return her purse.

It was black, with a silver clip clasp, and contained a picture of her daughter taken at Southend’s Adventure Island.

If anyone finds the purse they are asked to contact the Star Food and Wine Shop, in Whitmore Way.

A spokesman for Essex Police confirmed they were investigating the theft.

De le Salle school refused to comment.