A DISTINCTIVELY dressed thief stole a pensioner’s purse in a car park in Birchington over the Christmas holiday. The 68-year-old was putting some cans in the recycling bins at Albion Road when a young man approached her.

He asked her for change of a pound coin. When she got out her purse to look, he snatched it and ran off, towards Yew Tree Gardens. The purple purse contained £4 in loose change, a bus pass and a £5 gift voucher.

The thief was in his late teens, with short, light brown hair. He was wearing sandals with socks, blue tracksuit bottoms with a white stripe and a navy fleece.