A FEARLESS gran who hit the headlines after fighting off bogus officials after they tried to trick their way into her Blackburn home twice has died.

Maud Tootle, 91, who lived in Roe Lee, struggled with the conmen when they tried to get into her home on two occasions between 2005 and 2007.

Her family said that the brave great-grandma always remained determined not to let people take advantage of her despite being left shaken by the two incidents.

Her funeral was yesterday at St Alban’s Church in Blackburn after she died last week following a battle with heart trouble.

She would have been 92 today (Saturday).

Her son, Geoffrey Wales, 69, said Mrs Tootle will be remembered as a woman with a good sense of humour and a strong personality.

He said: “She came from a hardy family and did not suffer fools. That is why she stood up to those burglars.

“She was a very friendly person and very well known.”

Mrs Tootle was born in Yorkshire but moved to Blackburn in the 1940s when her husband Walter got a job to build the cooling towers at Whitebirk power station.

She lived for many years in the Fisher Street area of Blackburn and married her second husband Bert Tootle after Walter’s death in the 1970s.

A second incident at Mrs Tootle’s home in January 2007 saw two bogus callers who tried to trick their way in by pretending to be from the Water Board.

She told the Telegraph at the time: “One of the men tried to push his way in. He had one foot in the door.

"I pushed him back as best I could and we were jostling for a short time.”