KEY POINTS:
Police are hunting a "heartless and despicable" group of conmen who are squeezing thousands of dollars in cash out of elderly victims, one of whom has since died.
A week ago, Cambridge World War II veteran Kenneth Allan, 85, was approached by two tradesmen and conned out of $5000.
The conmen, pretending to be painters, took advantage of Mr Allan's confusion about whether an invoice for a previous roof job had been paid. They drove Mr Allan to his bank, where the money was withdrawn and handed over.
The men took off, leaving Mr Allan with $10 of his own money for a taxi fare home.
The following day Mr Allan's wife Joan was admitted to hospital with septicaemia. After visiting her at hospital in Hamilton last Friday, Mr Allan crashed into a tree while driving home.
He was taken to hospital but later died of his injuries, two weeks short of his 86th birthday.
"The dirty rotters," Mrs Allan said from her home yesterday. The 87-year-old is still very ill and will be returning to hospital in the next few days.
"We were as happy as Larry, married 62 years. I keep going to say 'Ken do this, Ken do that'. He did everything. I was iller than he was, and he was wonderful. We met in London when the bombs were coming down. He was in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, born and bred in Wellington."
Mrs Allan was transferred from her ward to be with her husband during his final hours.
The couple's daughter, Eileen Callow, flew from Wales to be with her parents.
"He said to me on the phone [before dying] 'sorry for the trouble'."
She said her parents were shaken and worried by what had amounted to an invasion of their home. "They were here for more than an hour. We are just so angry about it.
"He was so old-fashioned, the most honest person who just liked to fix up his bills."
Cambridge police Detective Scott McDougall said while the conmen had not directly caused Mr Allan's death, their actions probably had some bearing on his state of health.
It was a terrible tragedy, he said.
"This has been extremely upsetting for all the community - Mr Allan's family, the local community and for police. It's a very sad end to a heartless and despicable ploy to get money from a helpless, elderly victim."
It appears the men also approached a 90-year-old woman in Cambridge on the day Mr Allan was ripped off. She declined an offer by two men to paint her roof.
Police understood a trio of tradesmen had apparently painted the roof of another elderly woman on November 13, this time on Halsey Rd in Manurewa, Auckland.
At the time, the white Toyota Hiace van the men were driving had just been bought. They were also using a dark green Mitsubishi Delica van.
Mr McDougall said police were investigating security footage from a Manurewa service station, which showed a man who fitted the description of one of the painters.
The same dark green van was spotted in a Warehouse carpark in Hastings last Saturday, where it had been left for several days.
Herald inquiries show the van changed ownership on that day.
* Police believe the men are from Hawkes Bay and could be targeting more elderly victims
* Two men are being sought, both Europeans aged between 35 and 50
* The men are believed to be using a white Toyota Hiace van, registration number SW8726, and a dark green Mitsubishi Delica van, registration number OX5292
