Scam – Unwanted Gardener

I was contacted by a resident in a local road.

There was an incident recently whereby a person had let himself into the residents back garden and then spent about an hour ‘doing gardening chores’ .

The resident had not noticed anything until too late, when confronted the ‘gardener’ stated that the resident had requested his services, followed the resident into their home and demanded payment for the work. This was £100 for roughly one hour of work.

The resident felt intimidated and paid the man hoping that would be the end of the matter.

 

A few weeks later the same person arrived back at the residents house in a car with 3 other people. He tried the same tactic and tried to enter the rear garden without invitation.

This time the resident saw the man and quickly told him he was not wanted. Again this man told the resident that they had asked him to carry out work, which is not true.

Fortunately this time the fake gardener was sent away before he could start and no money was demanded.

 

The resident has contacted the police and supplied details of this person and the car.

 

Please always contact the police on 999 straight away if an incident like this is happening to you.

You can also report this information to Action Fraud   

I would also suggest feeding information like this to the local SNT Police so they can keep an eye out for people like this

Author: Paul Middleton

Paul is a Ward Councillor for St. Andrews & Hornchurch Resident's Association Executive member.

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