Police are warning members of the community not to allow strangers into their homes after a series of incidents in Middlesbrough.

Officers believe that a teenage couple could be targeting elderly residents and tricking their way into their property.

In the first incident, on Saturday afternoon, a couple called at a house in Beverley Road, Saltersgill, Middlesbrough. The man asked to use the toilet and the elderly resident let them into her house.

She became suspicious when they started to wander around her home and asked them to leave.

Later that same afternoon, a man and woman walked into the house of a 90-year-old woman in Falmouth Street, Middlesbrough. Again they wandered around the house and then left. It is not know if anything was stolen.

At 1pm on Monday, a man asked to use the toilet of an elderly man's house in Ingram Road, Berwick Hills. After going upstairs, he then ran out of the house. It is not known whether anything was stolen.

In the final incident, at 2pm the same day, a teenage couple called at a house in Sambrook Gardens, Middlesbrough, and wandered into the house of a woman in her 80s.

They left the property shortly afterwards.

In the four incidents the description of the man and woman are very similar. The man is described as white, in his late teens or early twenties with a thin face and short hair. The woman is described as white, in her late teens with shoulder-length blonde hair. She is described as chubby and was wearing a knitted multi-coloured hat and jeans with rips in the legs.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact Cleveland Police on 01642-326326 or Crimestoppers on 0800-555 111.