AN APPEAL for empty crisp packets to help buy a dialysis machine for a poorly nine-year-old girl in Corfe Mullen is a hoax.

Members of the public should not be fooled by posters, which claim to be helping the unnamed girl who has kidney failure.

Walkers Crisps were alerted to the bogus appeal after the Echo made enquires when one of the posters arrived at our Poole office.

The poster claimed the crisp company would buy a dialysis machine for the girl if local people collected enough empty Walkers Crisps packets to equal her weight.

The empty packets were to be handed in to Poole ambulance station.

In a statement Walkers Crisps said: "It has been brought to our attention that people have been asked to collect Walkers Crisps packets to raise charitable funds for a case involving a child with a serious illness.

"Walkers Snack Foods extends every sympathy to the people who have collected empty packets.

"Although Walkers does participate in a number of charitable fund-raising schemes, the company wishes to emphasise that at no time has it been asked to provide support for these cases, nor has it agreed to do so.

"Walkers Snack Foods requests that people dispose of their empty crisps packets in a tidy and environmentally friendly way as normal."

The company is trying to trace the source of the bogus appeal.

A spokesman for Poole ambulance station thanked the Echo for making it aware of the hoax.