PENSIONERS' representative Alan Page has warned the elderly not to store mounds of cash at home.

He spoke after a number of burglaries in recent weeks where pensioners were pinned down and had more than £1,000 taken from their wallets and houses.

Mr Page, from the campaign group, Pensioners' Voice, based in High Wycombe, said that thieves are preying on the elderly because they know that many of them store pensions in bed side drawers and stuff cash into their wallets.

He told Midweek: "I can't tell people enough just don't have large sums of money in the house. The trouble is that many pensioners do not trust banks.

"My own father told me that it was more likely that a bank would go bust and he would lose his money than lose it in a house fire or theft.

"Telephone banking is no good for some elderly people because they can get confused and many banks and post offices are now shutting so they end up hoarding money."

In one of the burglaries, an 87-year-old man was shoved on to a chair and brutally held down by the wrists at his home in Suffield Road, High Wycombe. Thieves took just £20 of savings in the incident on May 16.

A day later, a 77-year-old woman of Shepherds Close, Beaconsfield, had £1,140 stolen from her purse after she was bundled to the floor and held down in the same way.

Kate Spark, spokesman for Chiltern Vale Police, reiterated the warning for pensioners not to hide cash in the house or keep large amounts in their wallets.