RIDE-BY BAG SNATCH

The 70-year-old woman was walking down the trail near North Street with her husband just after midday on April 9.

The pair had just reached the underpass near White House School when a young man on a dark blue BMX bike rode past them and snatched the handbag from the woman's hand.

The man is described as white, in his late teens to early twenties, slim and about 5ft to 6in tall.

He had black scruffy hair and was wearing a pale grey Lonsdale hooded top.

The bag was beige and contained a purse and personal papers.

This attack follows a similar incident last year when a thief snatched a bag from a mother walking her child in a push-chair along the same stretch of the Cuckoo Trail.

PC Liz Keenan from Hailsham police station said: 'Incidents like this are rare in Hailsham but we treat them very seriously.'

Anyone who saw the incident or has any information should contact PC Shepherd at Hailsham police station on: 0845 60 70 999 quoting serial number: 697/09.04.06.