A DISABLED pensioner is pleading with a pickpocket who stole her purse to hand it in to police.

The purse was snatched from Toni Gray, 78, while she was out shopping with her husband, Albert, in High Row, Darlington, on Wednesday afternoon.

Wheelchair-bound Mrs Gray, a concentration camp survivor originally from Holland, had collected her pension shortly before the thief struck.

She discovered the purse had gone when she reached into her handbag to pay for an item in a charity shop.

She said: "I am absolutely devastated. We don't go into the town all that often so for this to happen when we do is terrible.

"There was about £70 in the purse and I can't afford to lose that. I feel so hurt that somebody would do this to me."

Acting Inspector Steve Steen, from Darlington police, said officers would be checking closed-circuit television footage to try to catch the culprit.

"We think that someone must have taken her purse from her bag while she wasn't looking. We'd urge people to keep their bags zipped up to prevent this kind of crime."

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call police on (01325) 467681 or anonymously on the Crimestoppers number, 0800 555 111.