TWO pensioners have complained of a case of mistaken identity following a police appeal for information abut a DIY store fraudster.

Edmund Britton, 76, and 80-year-old Bernard Place both contacted The Northern Echo within minutes of one another to say a police CCTV still picture of a fraud suspect published in the paper yesterday was their spitting image.

Both men, from Darlington, were astonished to see the suspect’s photograph and police appeal, which asked for information on an incident in B & Q, in Northallerton’s Yafforth Road.

Mr Britton used to run a family business, Heat Parts, in Victoria Road, Darlington, which has now been taken on by his daughter.

He said: “It looks identical to me. The clothes on the man look identical to what I would wear, the glasses look very much the same. It is me to a T.”

He said he was concerned people who knew him may think he had been invoved in the crime. “If any of my customers see this in the newspaper, they will think it is me,” he added. “I have nothing to do with it.”

Mr Place, who lives in Whinfield, Darlington, said the man in the picture is so like him, even his wife was fooled.

“I did a double take when I saw it,” he said. “It looks exactly like me.

“I showed the wife, and she said, ‘It’s you’. It is a bit worrying really.

“All my friends and family said the man in the picture looks identical to me.”

The appeal was put out by North Yorkshire Police to trace a man who went into the B & Q Darlington store on Tuesday, October 4, and bought a number of items.

The man then entered the Northallerton branch at 1.40pm and took the same items from the shelves before taking them to the checkout and using his receipt to obtain a refund.

Anyone with information about the man responsible is asked to contact PC Ciaran Conlon at Northallerton police station or on 0845- 60-60-247.