A 71-year-old who set up a camera in his home to film childrens' reactions to his trick-or-treat sweets has condemned a woman who pinched the candy.

Mike Rutter, of Bynes Road, South Croydon, switched on his camera late on Monday night to re-watch passing-by children’s reactions when they discovered his bags of treats.

But before any children came by, the next day a woman came along and took almost all of the sweets.

He said: “I set up the camera to watch the kids’ reactions. I put the buckets out on Monday evening, and set up the camera straight away.

“She was the only one that came by, and she nicked almost all of the bags. There was about a couple of dozen in there and she only left two or three.”

The pensioner has labelled the women, who was caught with her hand in the Halloween-themed buckets, as a “low-life”.

He said: “It was my friend who called her that in the YouTube title, his words, and I think he had had a few pints when he wrote that.

“[But] anybody who pinches sweets that are meant for children is a bit of a low life.”

The retired tram driver said the woman later knocked on his door to explain why she took the sweets.

She knocked after Mr Rutter pinned up a poster on his front wall, shaming her for pinching the sweets.

She told the pensioner that she had taken bags of sweets for each of her children, to which he said was “a load of bollocks”.