A HORRIFIED mum has told how a couple with a baby stole hundreds of pounds from her handbag – yards away from her own six-month-old daughter.

Rebecca Smith was at home in Winkton near Christchurch with her baby daughter Hayley when David Buckley and Charlotte Moore turned up in a van with a baby of their own and offered to empty a skip for £100.

She took pity on them but after the paid the money, Moore distracted her while Buckley snuck inside to steal another £380 from an envelope in her handbag.

Buckley is now a wanted man after he was found guilty of burglary in a trial held without him after he skipped bail.

Moore, also known by the surname Matthews, admitted the offence at Bournemouth Crown Court.

The 25-year-old victim said she felt violated after trying to give them a chance to make some money because they had their own baby the same age as hers.

"It felt like a complete invasion of my home without them being invited in," she said.

"He just came in and stole it and it was such a horrible feeling."

The skip had been cleared and she had paid Buckley the £100 when she received another knock on the door moments later and Moore asked her to come outside.

Mrs Smith thought said she thought she was going to show her something outside the front door but was asked around the side of the house.

She said she became nervous and rushed back in to see Hayley as she saw Buckley walking to his van and leaving with Moore and their child.

She got back in to find Hayley, now aged one and a half, was fine but £380 was missing.

“I was livid – absolutely fuming,” she said.

“He walked out of here with £480.”

Mrs Smith said her husband Adrian was out at the time of the offence on May 31 last year and said she had the money in her handbag to pay the skip company and some other workers.

The whereabouts of Buckley, 22, a traveller whose last known address was West Wellow, near Romsey, is not known and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Moore, of Camilla Close, Totton, is yet to be given a date for sentencing.

Angela England, prosecuting, said the van they used had Fern Design Landscaping written on the side and the police were given the vehicle registration before Buckley was arrested and his fingerprints were matched to the cash envelope from the handbag.