A QUICK-WITTED father who had just withdrawn £2,500 from a bank to buy his son a car has warned others to be on their guard after he nearly lost the money to con artists.

Gordon Baxter, 62, was leaving Barclays Bank in Wanstead High Street at 1.30pm on Tuesday when a young woman walked up from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.

The retired pharmaceutical wholesaler from Roding Lane South in Clayhall said: “She pointed to my jacket and it was covered in brown stuff, I wondered if it was brick dust. She gave me a tissue and I took my jacket off and there was loads of it on my trousers as well.”

Mr Baxter believes the woman was attempting a common fraud in which a thief pretends to be a helpful passer-by.

Although he was alert enough to hang onto his money on this occasion, an accomplice made a second attempt as he got into his car seconds later.

He said: “A chap came up to me and tapped on the window and said ‘don’t drive off, you’ve got a flat tyre’. I said ‘there’s a garage around the corner’, and drove off.

Mr Baxter said he was surprised the police did not record his experience as a crime when he reported it.

He added: “The police won’t do anything about it until someone’s hit on the head. If I had been a bit further away from the car I presume he would have attacked me in the street. I think a warning should be given to people.”

A police spokeswoman said: “We would make a note of this as a crime-related incident, but because they had not made an attempt to take the money off him, there is no offence.

“We have to think about the law and how it's going to stand up in court.”

Acting Detective Inspector Ian Hassall of Redbridge CID said: "My advice to anyone approached in similar circumstances would be to politely thank the person concerned, do not remove your jacket and move away from the person approaching you.

"You should then move to an environment such as a shop or a bank before removing your outer jacket to examine it.

"Any would-be thieves will be put off by the presence of CCTV cameras within the premises that you have moved to."