LOCAL police are warning everyone to be on their guard, especially the elderly and traders, against 'distraction thieves' who they believe could be part of a network which in the last two weeks has descended on the South East Cornwall area.

An established link in three reported cases so far, is that the men concerned have all spoken in a 'gibberish' manner.

On Wednesday, pensioner Miss Mary Stephens of Tideford, was alarmed when two men entered her terraced home without knocking while she was eating her lunch at about 1.30pm.

Miss Stephens, who is partly disabled after several falls, did not believe their story that they were doing some repair work in the house next door, and bravely shouted at them to get out.

However, they continued to walk around her home and tried to get her to go into the sitting room to check whether or not they had drilled through a wall, but she refused. They then went upstairs looking in both bedrooms and the bathroom.

Miss Stephens believes they only left because they may have seen a police car parked near the Post Office from one of the bedroom windows, and she has the picture of a policeman, the son of a friend, on her sideboard.

'I told them it was my nephew' she said, 'I really stood my ground, I was determined they wouldn't get over me, although I was upset and shaken afterwards'. Neighbours and friends have been rallying around popular Miss Stephens since her frightening experience.

Saltash police are looking for two men, the first described as over 30, about 5' 8" of big build and thick set with dark, straggly medium length hair in an uncombed state, and wearing a dark, possibly blue coat. The second man is described as aged 20-30, and 5' 6" with medium long dark hair, with some falling across the forehead, and again wearing dark clothing.

Another similar incident occurred at Taylor's Esso filling station in Liskeard's town centre at 12.30pm on Saturday afternoon, when two men stole £390 from an office. Owner Miss Margaret Lock had left the office where she had been counting money, for a short period to pay a member of staff.

When she returned she found the men in the office vicinity and pushed them back out into the shop area, afterwards discovering they had stolen some cash.

Liskeard CID have descriptions of the men. The first is said to be between 5' 8" and 5' 10", aged 19-21 and wearing a blue sweatshirt, and shell suit style trousers with white markings. The second man is described as about 5' 7", aged 30 and wearing a white shirt with a black short jacket and tracksuit bottoms.

Audrey Hughes, who runs the Tavistock Arms at Gunnislake with her husband Bob, disturbed a 'customer' who she found had entered their private quarters last Wednesday around 2pm.

Her sons, Matthew aged 34, and Michael aged 30, rushed up the stairs to her rescue, and the man, thought to be around 30, jumped over the bannister, and fell around 12'. He, and a companion who had remained in the bar and is thought to be around 60, then ran off. Bob took the registration number of their car, but police later discovered false number plates had been used. The younger man is described as having short black hair with sideburns, large lips, and a sharply defined face. He was wearing a black jacket, with yellow stripes down the arm. Both he, and the other man, were thought to have speech impediments.