A High Wycombe taxi company saved a Marlow pensioner from having his life saving stolen by fraudsters thanks to quick thinking by a staff member.

Izy Rashid, who works at Neales Taxis in Corporation Street, said alarm bells started ringing when one of the firm’s drivers was handed a package by an elderly man in Marlow to be dropped off to an address in London.

He asked the driver to return to the office, where they opened the package and found bundles of £50 notes totalling around £12,000.

Mr Rashid took the driver and package back to the gentleman, Howard Stokes’ house, where they heard that Mr Stokes had received a phone call from someone purporting to be from Metropolitan Police.

They had told Mr Stokes that they had detected fraudulent activity on his bank account and asked him to take out all the money in his account to send over to them.

Mr Rashid said: “When I asked him what was in the package he said it was a present for his son. It didn’t sound right to me so I pressured him to tell me what was really going on.

“He told me what happened and that they had asked him not to say anything to anyone.

“I felt so sorry for him because he was so confused. They told him he would have the money back in his account once they received it.

“He was living on his own and they took advantage.

“I could have kept the money which was so easy to do but both my faith and morals don't allow me to keep other people's belongings.

“I belong to a company that actually cares about its customers – we want to do everything to protect them, we consider their safety and wellbeing as paramount.

“If Neales Taxis receive a call that sounds suspicious we ensure we take necessary steps to protect all our customers, especially vulnerable customers such as females and the elderly.”

Mr Stokes has been reunited with his money and police are now investigating the incident.