Men pretending to be gardeners/tree surgeons...

[Dis]

I?ve just spoken to my neighbour, a woman in her eighties who lives on her own in Kirkdale. A gardening company had put a business card through her letterbox, so she called them and asked them to visit and quote to trim a tree in her garden. 2 guys arrived and told her that the tree needed to be cut down (which it didn?t) and refused to tell her how much it would cost. Despite her protestations, they became aggressive and cut a few branches off the tree then asked her for ?2100. She was terrified - they made her go to the bank and withdraw the cash and give it to them. Now we all can see that there were opportunities for her to call the police, but she was too afraid and just wanted them to go. Obviously she called the police once they had gone, but they are not confident that there will be much they can do.

So be warned. Ignore business cards that come through your letterbox. And watch out for these scumbag thieves.....

[kings dream]

hi i have just seen on facebook that they were in ladywell today when asked for card they said would come back

[Robert Poste's Child]

Your poor neighbour. She must have been terrified. Hope the police catch them.

[Jules-and-Boo]

let's hope they leave more business cards and more people (like my other half) call them

That WOULD be fun.

[alice]

Those cards aren?t random

[JohnL]

Taking money out of a bank with menaces is the same as robbery (effectively once I was forced to give my pin up once - the police can't do anything but the bank can). It's a crime and the bank WILL reimburse surely.

Edit: What I mean is there was no way she authorised the transaction - she let it happen because they were with her threatening her.

[rendelharris]

Please alert the bank to what looks like a failure in their procedures: most (all?) now say they are aware of these issues and check carefully before authorising the withdrawal of large amounts of cash by older customers, checking with relatives etc if suspicious. Hope the lady's recovering from such an unpleasant experience and that they catch these [redacted] soon.

[sjsl]

Rendelharris speaks truth, do make sure your neighbour explains to the bank, they should not allow large cash withdrawals without notice by potentially vulnerable customers.

[David2017]

Dis, are you able to give us the name or phone number on the flyer? My mum is looking for someone to do some work on the tree in her garden and recently had a (very genuine looking) flyer through the door from someone claiming to be a tree surgeon. I don't want her to suffer the same horrible treatment as your neighbour.

Also I found this news story which doesn't encourage me but at least these ones were caught.

http://www.bromley.gov.uk/press/article/1252/rogue_traders_sentenced_following_gardening_and_tree_work

Thanks

David

[nina_maniana]

Gosh how dreadful. There were some blokes hanging out in a van outside my house a while back - seemed dodgy so I went out to ask them if they needed some help. They said they were tree surgeons and as it happened we needed a tree taking out so i asked for a price and he gave a price I was ok with. Then he pressed me to get the cash out on the spot, i said no it wasn't a good time but could do the next week. Then he refused to give me his number and said he'd put a card through the door which he never did... I thought it was odd at the time as I'd have been happy to pay, and had them down for fraudsters. Wonder if it's the same chaps.

[Dis]

Ive replied via private message, because it may be possible that these cowboys are printing flyers that use a legitimate company's name, but they are changing the phone numbers for their own. This way, if you go to the website you see a perfectly good company, who may be professional and completely honest.. But of you call the mobile number you get through to a scumbag who has nothing to do with the real company.

I don't want to publicly accuse a company of malpractice, because it may actually have nothing to do with them.

What i will say is that the mobile number on the flyer ended with 8864..

[tomskip]

If anyone on this thread actually needs a good tree surgeon, I am very happy to recommend Tim Doidge at Sakuratreeservice.com, who did a great job here last year.

[David2017]

Thank you Dis and Tomskip, much appreciated.

David

[shoshntosh]

A second recommendation for Tim Doidge... he's the real deal.

It's incredible how inventive thieves can be.

[hpsaucey]

And a third for tim doidge.

He and his mate worked v v hard and professionally to get rid of a mass of sycamore trees for me earlier this year.

HP