A mother has made a desperate plea to thieves who stole her mobile phone containing all of the photos of her young children.

Hayley Grant, 29, of Collier Row, had her Samsung Galaxy Note 2 pinched from her bag while she was shopping in Accessorize in The Liberty shopping centre in Romford.

It contained nearly three years’ worth of photos of her children, five-year-old Oliver and Lucia, two.

Now, distraught Hayley is appealing for the return of the photos, which are stored on a removable memory card.

“I’m not bothered about the handset now,” she said. “I just want the memory card with all my photos back. I had every single photo ever taken of my young children on there.

“It was taken in a 10-second spell while I was shopping with a friend. Stupidly, I hadn’t backed up the images. I am devastated – I’ve lost the photos of them growing up.”

The phone is worth about £300. Police have viewed CCTV footage from the shop, which shows the theft.

Jonathan Poole, centre manager of The Liberty, said: “We are sorry to hear the theft of Ms Grant’s belongings. This is an isolated incident and we are working with the police to ensure a swift recovery. We are doing all we can to see the recovery of the mobile phone.”

Police are investigating the incident and no arrests have been made.