POLICE have released CCTV images of a man they believe stole a woman's bank cards and then tricked her into giving out her PIN so he could steal money from her account.

The offender walked into The Fleece hotel in Cirencester on Tuesday November 4, entered a staff room and took a purse containing the cards and cash.

He then left the hotel and called the woman from a nearby phone box, saying he was a police officer and had caught the offender and found her cards. He told the victim that he needed to "shut the card down" so needed her Personal Identification Number (PIN) to do so. The woman felt so convinced by what the officer was telling her that she did this.

He then used the PIN to withdraw hundreds of pounds from the victim's account from an ATM at the Tesco Express in Cricklade.

Police would like to speak to anyone who recognises the man in the CCTV images, or who remembers seeing anything suspicious in Cirencester or Cricklade on November 4 between 9am and 10am. Please call 101 and quote incident number 83 of November 4.