Lock it up: Beware of conmen doing cheap jobs and bogus tax collectors

Gardai and the IFA have come together to try and get farmers to be more security conscious and to be far more wary of callers offering to do work at what seems a very cheap rate.

Often elderly farmers living on their own are targeted by conmen on the pretence of undertaking to carry our work at what seems a rock-bottom price. However according to Gardai, once these con gangs get the go-ahead to do some work – often in relation to guttering or roofs – they will then demand far larger amounts of money, often using threatening and intimidating behaviour.

“If a person calls to your door offering you professional trade services, tell them that you never employ people ‘cold calling’ to your door.

“That is the best policy to have across the board, but if you do engage with someone, always ask for a sales brochure or other documentation and verify that information yourself,” said a Garda spokesman.

Gardai said that other gangs are operating a bogus VAT scam, where farmers, after getting work carried out, are then approached a number of days later by other gang members seeking cash to pay off their ‘tax liabilities’.

“There are also deposit scams being carried out. When the criminals are satisfied that they have hoodwinked the intended victim into engaging them for work, they will demand a deposit.

“This deposit is supposedly to purchase the materials required to carry out the necessary repairs. Having secured the deposit, they flee, never to return,” said the Gardai.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.