By Hugh Dunnett
Crime Correspondent

Police are hunting a man who pushed an old lady over at a cashpoint after she asked him to check her balance.

Dot Bannatyre, 77, was trying out her new debit card at a machine in Ipswich town centre for the first time but was struggling with the instructions.

She told cops: “I wanted to know if my pension had been paid in because I fancied treating myself to lunch in Mannings.

“But I had no idea how to do it at a cashpoint, so I asked this young man who was passing by if he could check my balance.

“Imagine my surprise when he tipped me over gently, saying, ‘It’s not very good, love’.

“I was shocked but completely unhurt. A nice young policemen saw me wiping down my stockings and asked if I was all right.”

Ipswich police are appealing for witnesses and say they want to speak with a man aged in his early teens, dressed in blue jeans and a Norwich City football shirt.

“It might sound funny, but Dot was lucky she was not hurt,” an officer told the Suffolk Gazette.

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