A 69-year-old mon­ey lender was beat­en by ban­dits af­ter an­swer­ing the door to a young woman on Thurs­day night.

Po­lice said the man was at his St James home at around 8.30 pm when he heard a knock on the front door.

On check­ing he saw a woman who called out to him.

As he un­locked the door, two ban­dits, one of whom had a gun, stormed the house beat­ing him.

The ban­dits de­mand­ed mon­ey and ran­sacked his home, but did not find any­thing valu­able and left short­ly af­ter.

Of­fi­cers of the West­ern Di­vi­sion are con­tin­u­ing en­quiries.