Residents are being urged to warn elderly relatives about a recent spate of incidents where telephone fraudsters claiming to be police officers are demanding money.

Lincolnshire Police has seen an increase in police impersonation fraud since 21 June.

The reports first started in the Grantham area with further incidents coming to light in the Stamford area from 25 June 25th and including yesterday (Thurs).

A Lincolnshire Police spokesman said: "The victim receives an unsolicited telephone call from someone purporting to be a police officer; often they state they are from a London based force but occasionally they have said they are from Lincolnshire Police.

"They state that there has been fraud on the victim's bank account and they will look to establish how much money the victim has and will try to convince the victim that a rogue bank employee is involved in the crime.

"They will tell to victim to withdraw money and that that money must be seized by police. Often they will tell the victim the money is fake and must be fingerprinted.

"The aim of this type of fraud is to convince the victim to withdraw a large amount of money and hand it over to a courier who will come to their address to collect it.

"At this time at least £16,300 is known to have been lost to these fraudsters in this recent series of fraud across the county.

"These criminals activity target the elderly residents, please talk to friends and family and report any calls to police or Action Fraud."

Anyone who receives a call and is unsure whether the person on the line is genuine is advised to hang up the phone immediately and call 101 on a different line.

Such calls can also be reported to Action Fraud on 0300 1232040.