A COUPLE has warned fellow pensioners to be vigilant after being accosted in a town centre car park by "professional pickpockets".

Michael and Enid Smith, 77 and 76 respectively, were approached by two women with a clipboard while in the Marks & Spencer car park in High Street, Christchurch.

The pair, from Bransgore, quickly realised the two women were trying to steal their belongings and defended themselves, escaping with just a minor injury to Mr Smith's elbow.

Mr Smith said: "We came back to our car, opened the door and these two ladies, around about 30, came up to me with two clipboards.

"They asked if I would sign and I said no, with that they kept pushing these clipboards in front of me to sign and then it got worse and worse, they pushed me against the car and I was trapped by the door so I couldn't get in or couldn't move.

"I had an envelope in my top pocket which, in the scuffle, one of them took out, I started retaliating and pushing them back and with that Enid, my wife, came round and she started fighting and it got into a rather large scuffle.

"I realised they were professional pickpockets, I put my hand on my wallet and backed against the car so they couldn't get it.

"The scuffle carried on for quite some time, for about five minutes I'd say. The police came along within five minutes of me dialling 999 and told me it's happening quite a lot around here.

"It was very frightening, the police told us to wait before we drove off because it was quite a bad experience.

"We don't expect these things at lunch time, in the Marks and Spencer car park in Christchurch.

"We want to warn people, they are obviously going for OAPs for the lack of fighting back."

Mrs Smith said at first she did not realise what was happening.

After getting out of the car she confronted the pickpockets and stopped them in their tracks although they were "getting really rough".

"I could tell by her face they didn't expect us to retaliate at all," she said. "We were lucky in the fact it was around the car and we managed to get hold of them.

"When someone comes up to you nose to nose almost with a clipboard, saying 'sign this' and the other is going round your back to look at your pockets, if you're on your own you may not come off as well as we did."

A Dorset Police spokesperson said: "Dorset Police received a report at 12.36pm on Wednesday September 7 of an attempted distraction theft in the Marks & Spencer car park in High Street in Christchurch.

"No one was injured during the incident. Officers attended and carried out a search of the area for the offenders, but they were not located. Enquiries are continuing into the incident."