THIEVES made off with more than £1,000 after tricking an elderly woman into letting them into her Benfleet home.

The crooks had been carrying out repair work to the roof of the 96-year-old victim's home, when one of them said he desperately needed to use her bathroom.

But while upstairs in the house he went into her bedroom and stole two purses containing the cash.

* More in tomorrow's Echo