An Edinburgh thief is reportedly stealing money from people's pockets by scanning their contactless cards.

Police have warned shoppers to watch out for the woman, who has been seen in the capital.

Officers believe she may be using a small device to scan cards in pockets and bags, taking sums of up to £30 a time.

Police in Edinburgh have warned they will put the thief in "contact" with her solicitor if they find her.

The technique, which is known as wireless identity theft (WIT), is believed to be on the rise.

There are now around 74.5 million contactless cards in circulation across the UK and last year almost £7m was stolen from cardholders; up from £2.8m in 2015.

However, WIT only makes up a small percentage of those crimes and over the same period contactless spending in the UK rose from £7.75bn to £25.2bn.

Tin foil and insulated card protectors can both be used to block rogue scanners.

Morgan Rothwell, director of Defender Note, a company which makes products to protect contactless cards, said he believes WIT is under-reported.

"We carried out tests which showed that without even making contact with a purse or wallet we were able to take payments of up to £30. We have even been able to scan them through handbags.

"There are two opportunities for a thief - they can use a commercial reader to take up to £30 a time but it can be challenging for them to get to that money because the reader has to be linked to a merchant account.

"What is more likely that they will buy a scanner which will take the name, long number and expiry number of a card – enough to make purchases online.

"The real challenge with measuring contactless card fraud is that since they're such small payments we suspect a lot of people don't realise the money is missing."