A pensioner who was robbed of £2,000 just minutes after withdrawing it from the bank has claimed police should have done more to catch the culprits.

Two thieves seized on Gerry Graves, 75, in the arcade leading to the former Allders department store last year, with one pinning his hands to his sides and while the other grabbed the cash.

Mr Graves had withdrawn the money just moments earlier from Co-operative Bank on St George Street on September 12 - leading him to suspect that the robbers had heard him talking to staff and followed him.

There were no working CCTV cameras in the arcade in which he was robbed, but Mr Graves, of Shoreham Close, South Norwood, believes the thieves will have been caught on footage taken by the bank.

But five months later officers are no closer to cracking the crime - and Mr Graves claimed he has been left in the dark about their progress.

The retired car salesman said he was not allowed to watch the bank's CCTV footage and that the officer in charge of his case had not contacted him, despite him repeatedly requesting them to.

He said: "I was told they would contact me within a couple of days and five or six weeks later they hadn't. The feeling I get is that they aren't interested. But it is a lot of money to me. I'm very disappointed."

Mr Graves has now all but given up home of recovering the money, which his friend had transferred just a day earlier for him to buy a car with.

He revealed that the robbery - and knowing the culprits were at large - had made him more fearful of crime.

He said: "To know that nothing has been done about it makes me scared of it happening again."

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said the force had investigated the incident but had exhausted their leads of inquiry and were are not looking into it further.

He said officers had attempted to contact Mr Graves to update him on the case.

Anyone with information on the theft or any similar incident should contact police on 101.