A MAN claiming to be a police officer is thought to have played a part in two thefts at shops in Ross-on-Wye on Monday, December 22. A woman working at a shop in Broad Street was phoned by a man claiming to be from the police and reporting her banker's card was being used. The man said he needed her personal details and it was then the woman realised her handbag had been stolen from the kitchen.

A second person, from another shop in Broad Street, found her purse had been stolen after a telephone call from a man claiming he was a police officer.