Gloucestershire County Council’s Trading Standards team hit the streets on the hunt for rogue traders.
Officers, doctor working with Gloucestershire Police and Cotswold District Council, sick carried out spot checks across the county, view including Gloucester, Cheltenham, Cirencester and Stroud, following up a number of concerns recently raised by local residents.
Doorstep selling is a preferred approach for many rogue traders and trading standards advise people to watch out for the techniques that some shady doorstep traders may use to make a sale.
They will often claim they are working in the area just for the day, offer a bargain price, and say they can carry out the work immediately or the next day.
Typical work offered includes driveway repairs, garden maintenance general house repairs. Often the work will be overpriced and poor quality. Sometimes vulnerable people are intimidated into paying inflated prices.
As well as visiting builders’ merchants, officers went to people’s homes where work was being carried out.
Officers gained valuable information and intelligence from legitimate traders that will be helpful in ongoing and future rogue trader investigations.
Eddie Coventry, Head of Trading Standards, said: “We used intelligence from previous complaints of rogue trader activity to identify the areas that were most likely to be targeted.
All but one of the traders we approached was happy to speak to us and many said they were pleased to see our service doing these spot checks. After all, the work of rogue traders can prove costly to legitimate traders, both financially and in terms of reputation.
“These type of operations give us useful intelligence and help us protect people Gloucestershire from suffering at the hands of rogue traders.”
During the day, Trading Standards officers spoke to 41 traders and 5 residents to provide advice on consumer law, including cancellation rights, and warned people about the typical tactics used by rogue traders.
Cllr Will Windsor-Clive, cabinet member for fire, planning and infrastructure, said: “Protecting the most vulnerable and continuing to reduce criminal activity is the key priority for our Trading Standards team.
Rogue traders and doorstep sellers can make people’s lives a misery and spot checks like these are important in helping officers to identify them and learn more about how and where they are operating.”
To report any complaints to Trading Standards, contact Citizens Advice Consumer Service on 03454 04 05 06.