A suspected distraction burglar pretended to be a council worker as he tried to barge into the home of an elderly woman in Hackney.
The victim, 72, was at her home in Burma Road, Stoke Newington, around 5pm on January 6 when she heard a knock at the door and answered it to find a man standing there.
He claimed he was from the council, and said he needed to access her home because of a leak from the flat above.
The woman refused to let him in, but the man then attempted to push past her and jammed his foot in the door.
The woman screamed and pushed the man, who then stepped back, allowing her to shut the door.
The “incredibly frightening” incident was exacerbated by the fact the woman had been targeted in a similar burglary around a year earlier.
When the woman later spoke to her upstairs neighbours she found there was no leak.
Police were called and searched the area, but were unable to find the man.
The victim described him as white, around 5ft 6in tall, about 50 years old, of slim build and clean shaven. She could not pinpoint his accent, but it was not English. He was wearing a light brown/beige cap and jacket.
Detectives investigating the suspected attempted burglary on Wednesday released a computer-generated image of a man they want to trace.
Detective Constable Simona Vaigauskaite said: “This was an incredibly frightening incident for the elderly woman, made all the worse by the fact she had been the victim of a similar offence just a year prior in which a group of men gained access to her home under similar pretences and stole her property.
“While the incidents are not being treated as linked, we are keen to identify the man pictured.”
