Community Life

Getting work carried out on your house can be stressful at the best of times, even with trusted and well recommended builders. But what happens when those tradesman aren't really qualified and are simply out to make a quick buck at your expense?

Imagine the scene, you get a knock at the door and a tradesman tells you your roof is leaking or your gutters need repairs. They look the part, talk the talk, it's easy to be sucked into the facade. But now imagine you're a pensioner, not receiving very much income, your family and friends aren't living that close, you live alone.

If the seller is charming and polite, it's easy to be taken in and eventually allow them to convince you that your property has a list of problems with it, after-all who wants to believe that they're being conned.

Unfortunately this scenario has become all to common, especially among the more vulnerable members of the public. But fortunately for residents in the borough the council and local trading standards are keen to address this situation.

"Brilliant salesmanship"

In 2006 the Redbridge Bogus calls partnership was set up and tasked with tackling this type of crime. Its aim was to get local banks to sign up to a code aimed at making bank staff aware of the signs of bogus traders, with particular attention paid to sudden or unexpectedly large withdrawals from elderly people's accounts.

77 year old *Mr 'T' from Ilford was almost taken in by some traders who visited his property. Having already allowed them repair his roof, these tradesman returned to tell Mr T that his gutters were in a poor condition and they recommended that he repaired it as soon as possible. Although *Mr T had been suspicious of their initial repairs to his roof,  he went along with them and agreed that they should fix his gutters. The price was reasonable and their sales technique was very sharp:

"I thought I was dealing with a reasonable outfit that improvised an opportunity.... I thought I was getting a reasonable, not excessively cheap bargin.... it was brilliant salesmanship."

On agreeing the price, the tradesman then escorted *Mr 'T' to his local Natwest bank so that he could pay them in advance for the work that was to be done. It was while Mr 'T' attempted to withdraw the money that bank staff questioned his withdrawal, and upon hearing why he needed the money asked *Mr 'T' to delay the transaction. The waiting tradesmen suspecting their con was about to be unveiled, vanished. The staff then went on to alert authorities.

"The success of this one branch in helping preventing bogus caller crime shows the effectiveness of the banking protocol in stamping out this sort of crime."

The work done by the partnership has seen a reduction in the numbers of reported crimes, while the council point out a 33 per cent reduction in crimes for the period 2006-2007.

Other work being undertaken by the Bogus Caller Partnership includes the introduction of no cold callers zones in the borough and a new scheme to circulate details about reliable trades people.

*Mr 'T' is not his real name

If you'd like to comment on this story email: dekan.apajee@bbc.co.uk