A PRANKSTER stole a box full of competition winners' entries from a Croydon department store and then falsely led people to believe they had won £1,000.

The villain, likened to the Grinch who stole Christmas, snatched the cardboard post-box from Allders in Croydon's Whitgift Centre during the festive season.

Donna Flint, who entered the contest, was thrilled when her husband received a phone call on Christmas Eve to say she had won the cash prize.

But the mum-of-three from Addiscombe was devastated to discover the whole thing was just a nasty joke.

She said: "They said I had won the competition in Allders, could I go in on Boxing Day to get the prize, have lunch and have photographs taken.

"I said we couldn't because my son was really ill with tonsillitis.

"I asked if we could go in the following Saturday but all week went by and we didn't hear anything."

When Donna, 35, called the shop to arrange a time to collect her winnings, the person she spoke to knew nothing about the previous phone call.

She added: "I phoned again a few days later and they said the box had gone missing. How many other people have entered that competition?

"They all think they are in with a chance and they're not.

"I was so pleased when we thought we'd won – it's a lot of money. I'd already thought about how I was going to spend it.

"We tried to find out who had called us but BT said they can only check outgoing calls."

Donna and her husband David, 43, were planning to take their children Adam, 3, and Chloe, 6, on holiday with the winnings.

She said: "It would have meant a lot to us. Just to be told they're not going to do anything about it made me feel really cross.

"I'm not going to be shopping in their store anymore."

Donna posted her entry slip, with her name and phone number, into the competition box on the third floor of Allders in the Christy Linens department in mid-December last year.

Staff from the section admitted the box went missing some time before Christmas.

Donna Lewis, concessions administrator for Allders, said it had not been fixed to the floor and someone stealing it is "the only explanation" the store has for the confusion.

She added: "When she said Boxing Day alarm bells started ringing – it's the first day of the sale, all we'd be doing is selling.

"I was trying to help Donna – I'm devastated for her.

"I told her 'if you want to re-enter that's absolutely fine'.

"We could only think whoever took the box called as a hoax.

"If other people were called, they have just brushed it off."

Allders also said the contest rules clearly stated it does not end until January 31.

The box was replaced as soon as staff noticed it was missing.