Councillor saves pensioner from conmen

May 12 2009 By Adam Courtney

Denise Turner-Stewart

EAGLE-EYED Staines councillor Denise Turner-Stewart has saved a pensioner from forking out £400 to bogus callers.

Cllr Turner-Stewart says the man was in a "frightened and in a terrible state" after two men, claiming they had been sent by Thames Water, demanded £400 to unblock a drain pipe outside the man's house, in Penton Road.

The county councillor was cycling with her children on Thursday at about 4.45pm when she spotted the conmen being overly "persuasive" to the pensioner, thought to be in his seventies, before they drove off "laughing and joking".

"I thought it was odd," said Cllr Turner-Stewart. "Professional people don't tend to behave like that. I went and asked the elderly man what they were trying to do and he said they'd told him they'd been sent by Thames Water because there was a problem with sewers in the road caused by the roots of a tree in his garden. They said they'd be back with a rod to open a drain cover outside his house.

"At that point I phoned Thames Water and they told me they hadn't contracted anyone out to the area."

Shortly afterwards, the men returned, having been seen by a neighbour picking up gravel and putting it in their pockets, a move Cllr Turner-Stewart believes was designed to trick the pensioner into believing their story about a blockage. They then told the man the work would cost £400 and, if he didn't let them do it that day, would cost more and more.

She said: "He was really worried and frightened, telling me he would have to cut the bushes in his garden down, but I reassured him he wouldn't need to pay any money out. It's easy for younger people to say 'no', but when they're old they're unsure.

"It's not right and other elderly people in the area should be aware of these men and to make sure they always ask fro proper identification."

She says the men were both wearing blue boiler suits, in their mid-twenties, and both of slim build with dark hair.