Spot checks target rogue traders

Police and trading standards have started the spot checks

Road spot checks by police and trading standards officers have started in Powys in a crackdown on rogue traders.

It follows complaints from residents about traders cold calling and offering gardening and building work.

Dyfed-Powys Police and Powys council started the spot checks a few days ago, but said they would increase over the coming weeks.

Clive Jones of Powys trading standards said conmen brought despair and misery to the lives of many people.

Trading standards said legitimate traders, who have been stopped during the campaign, supported the spot checks.

Officials also warned residents and businesses about itinerant gangs operating in Powys who are offering gardening services, general building and tarmac work.

'Intimidating tactics'

Councillor Graham Brown, who is responsible for public protection in Powys, said: "These gangs use intimidating tactics, banking on the idea that if they have started work then householders will let them carry on and finish, then pay them extortionate monies for valueless work.

"We always warn the public that they should never deal with unidentifiable home maintenance traders who cold call at their homes."

Chief Inspector Andy Twigger of Dyfed Powys Police said the spot check campaign was a "concerted, high-profile co-ordinated action", which had raised awareness of how people can report suspicious traders.

Powys trading standards officer Clive Jones said: "Rogues and conmen who bring despair and misery to the lives of so many - for instance, by cold-calling and charging extortionate rates for home maintenance work or using it as a distraction while they steal - should know that it is not just during operations like this that they will be under the spotlight."