Legal News
Croydon’s Trading Standards team warns householders of “roofing” scam, after elderly resident is defrauded of £2,000 (1 June 2017)
Date: 01/06/2017
Croydon’s Trading Standards department is warning local residents to be aware of cold callers and “door steppers” demanding money for “urgent” roof repairs.
The scam came to the attention of the council in May after an elderly female victim from the Park Hill area answered the door to a man who had knocked, claiming that the roof of her next door neighbour was in urgent need of repair, requiring scaffolding to be erected.
A short while later, the resident received a phone call from a man calling himself David – he claimed that her roof was also in need of urgent work and added that a cash payment was required in advance to erect the scaffolding to enable the work to begin.
The woman told the council that his manner was “extremely persuasive” – and he offered her what seemed to be plausible detail as to the condition of the two roofs and the work required to repair them.
The council said that he convinced the householder to withdraw £2,000 from her bank account, which she handed to the original man when he returned to her home a short time later.
However, her suspicions were aroused when a further £4,000 was demanded in a second phone call from “David”.
Before withdrawing the cash, she spoke to her neighbour and was told that he had not arranged repairs to his roof and knew nothing about the matter.
The woman called the police who, in turn, notified Croydon Council’s Trading Standards team – she was advised not to proceed and not to hand over any more money.
The council said that the incident was being investigated by the police and Trading Standards.
The council’s director of safety, Andy Opie, said:
“This was a nasty attempt to part a trusting older resident with thousands of pounds of her life savings.
“Thankfully, she realised that something wasn’t quite right and the attempt to get more money from her failed.
“I’d urge all residents to be aware that cold-hearted fraudsters like this are operating locally – and say that, under no circumstances should they be persuaded by cold callers to hand over any sort of payment whatsoever, be it cash, cheque or money transfer.
“The chances are that, once handed over, the money will never be seen again.”
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