THOUSANDS of pounds were taken from the bank account of a health worker by thieves posing as patients.

The thieves took her credit card and obtained her pin number by deception after taking the victim’s purse while she was running a surgery at Dr Piper House in Darlington.

The incident took place between 9am and noon on September 5. The victim had used her NHS card to log on to her computer and at various points left her purse in her bag in the same room.

At around 11.45am she received an ‘urgent’ phone call from a man speaking in a local accent identifying himself as ‘Brian’ from Barclay’s Fraud Team.

He told her that her purse had been recovered from a Barclays in Newcastle after a female had attempted to withdraw funds from her account.

He said that all the money had been recovered, but persuaded the victim to give ‘Brian’ her pin number.

The victim then asked her husband to check the account online and he discovered that £3,700 had been withdrawn.

The withdrawals had been made at Barclays at Cockerton, both in the bank itself and the ATM, and also at the branch in High Road, Darlington.

It is thought there may also have been another two further transactions at an unidentified Currys and PC World on her credit card.

Police would like to speak to the man pictured. he is described as being between 35 to 40-years-old, with a bald head, goatee beard and was wearing glasses, a white shirt and dark trousers.

He also had a large silver-coloured watch with a dark dial on his left wrist.

He appeared to be wearing a dark coloured lanyard/ID badge around his neck which was tucked into his shirt breast pocket.

Similar offences have also occurred in the Northumbria area.

Anyone with any information is asked to call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555-111 or Durham Police on 0345-6060-365.