Detectives investigating a series of frauds in which elderly people were duped into revealing bank details to bogus police officers and the bank have arrested three people.

Officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate carried out a series of early morning raids at properties in Holloway, Islington, and Hornchurch in east London last Wednesday.

A 17-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man, both from Holloway, and a 21-year-old woman from Hornchurch, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud.

All three have been bailed to January 22 pending further enquiries.

Kent Police is investigating a number of courier frauds across Gravesend, Dartford and Sevenoaks.

It has been reported that phone calls have been made to elderly or vulnerable people, claiming their card has been used fraudulently.

The victim is told to call their bank but the caller remains on the line, they then obtain all the information about the account they need such as a PIN number and tell the victim they will come and collect the card from them.

Cash is then withdrawn from the card.

Often those committing the offences are very convincing and purport to be from a reliable organisation, including national retailers and police.

Detective Sergeant Adrian Brown said: "I would like to remind members of the public not to disclose their personal details over the telephone to any cold caller. Neither the bank nor Kent Police will ask people to disclose their personal details over the phone.

"I would also urge people not to input card numbers into the telephone system by pressing the keypad when dealing with cold callers as software is freely available that decodes this information, which providing those carrying out this type of offence with your PIN number."

If you have information call Kent Police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555111.