A frail pensioner today described her anger at being robbed of all her life savings by three men who conned their way into her home and attacked her.

Brave Phyllis Bulcock, 91, pictured, harangued the men and fought them as best she could when she caught them ransacking her home in Burley-in-Wharfedale.

But the grandmother, who suffers from arthritis and is partially sighted, was no match for them and was left with severe bruising to her arms where one of the gang had pinned her down in a vice-like grip.

Meanwhile, his two mates trashed each room in the house, smashing Mrs Bulcock's porcelain ornaments, stamping on a hand mirror and finding a pot filled with bank notes carefully saved from her weekly pension to cover her funeral costs.

Appalled detectives at Keighley CID today renewed appeals for information from members of the public.

Mrs Bulcock's son John, who lives nearby in Menston, said: "She's a fighter is my mum. I'd have been terrified. She's distressed because her savings have gone and she had been saving money from her pension to cover her funeral expenses.

"As people get older they seem to get more concerned with that, she had been hoarding the money up. She would only spend £15 per week on her shopping, the rest she'd been putting away so she could be buried properly, and now they have taken everything.

"I feel guilty because I was due to collect her at 2pm and if I had been half an hour earlier it wouldn't have happened. I feel as if I've let her down.

"It's up to me to protect her as best I can. Like my mum, I'm angry."

Mrs Bulcock, whose husband Harry died in 1974, said: "The man came to the door and said he was from the water board, and turned on a tap.

"I said 'you haven't showed me a card' and tried to push him out, then another man came down the stairs and I was absolutely horrified. He grabbed my wrists and I couldn't move.

"I was saying silly things like 'leave me alone, I am too old, stop it'."

"They made such a mess. I am very angry, as it took an awfully long time to get that money together. It was all I had, and they got the lot."

The suspects were three white men, aged between 20 and 30. Anyone with information about the raid at 1.30pm on Friday should contact Keighley CID on (01535) 617083.