A KINDHEARTED pensioner paid a heavy price for her generosity when a thief duped her and snatched her purse containing £25.

Joyce Martin, aged 70, had been to play bingo with friends at Tonge Cricket Club.

After leaving the club with a neighbour, Joyce walked the few yards to her home in Pimlott Road alone.

When she was only three dors away, a youth approached her and asked her for his bus fare home.

He said a neighbour was his aunt and she had been unable to lend him the cash.

Joyce pulled her purse from her bag, but the thief snatched it from her hands and made off down the road.

Joyce's son who lives close to his parents heard his mother's screams and contacted Joyce's husband Ernie who works for Tonge Cricket Club on a casual basis.

Yesterday her husband said that she was "physically well, but shaken" from her ordeal.

Anyone with any information about the purse which is red and contained £25, plus Joyce's bus pass and electricity card can contact her husband Ernie at Tonge Cricket Club on Bolton 303042.

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