Police have said that two people who offered help to an elderly woman who was dying in bed actually stole her mobile phone and purse.

The couple had said that they would call for an ambulance after the woman’s elderly husband was so worried that he had gone out onto the street to look for help in the early hours of 16th October.

He found the couple who said that they would assist him.

The husband, in his 80’s, let them in to the property and they said they would call an ambulance while he went to be with his wife.

Officers said that the purse and phone were later reported missing from the house on Walter Street, Brierfield. Sadly, the woman died later the same day Lancashire Police said in a statement.

PC Rob Bayley said “To commit a crime like this on an elderly and vulnerable man in his hour of need is shameful and appalling and we are committed to finding those responsible.

The male victim believed the offenders, who were passers-by, were helping him by ringing for an ambulance while he went back upstairs to sit by the bedside of his dying wife. But it has later transpired that they had in fact helped themselves to a purse, which was on a table in the front room and a mobile phone from inside a handbag, which was down the side of a chair.”

The police have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.