For National Consumer Week, the theme is doorstep crime. With at least 169,000 cases of doorstep crime now estimated to take place in England and Wales a year, new research for the Trading Standards Institute, National Trading Standards and Citizens Advice has shown how exposed some of our most vulnerable citizens could be. Almost half of British adults (46pc) don’t think their neighbourhood looks out for its vulnerable residents well enough and two in five of us (39pc) know someone who is at particular risk and would struggle to spot a doorstep criminal or handle them assertively.
The 2014 National Consumer Week sees the launch of the ‘Good Neighbours Stop Rogue Traders’ campaign, which encourages citizens to look out for signs that a neighbour or someone in their community may be being targeted by doorstep criminals and to step in and alert the authorities.
Signs an unwanted doorstep caller may be visiting a neighbour:
A van is parked nearby with workmen in, on, or near your neighbour’s property
Ladders or scaffolding suddenly appear
Noises such as banging, drilling, or chainsaws
Trees are suddenly removed or pruned in your neighbour’s garden
Poor quality work visible on the roof, driveway, or property
Your neighbour appears anxious or distressed; and
Your neighbour leaves their house more frequently to visit bank, building society, or post office accompanied by a trader.
Doorstep crime involves criminals preying on vulnerable people – often older and living with ill health – by cold-calling at their homes and pressurising them into paying extortionate prices for unnecessary goods or services. The outcome is often botched jobs on roofs, driveways and gardens and the practice often sees victims being frogmarched into banks and building societies to withdraw large sums of cash. But confronting doorstep criminals can be daunting for traditionally polite Brits, with a quarter of those who admitted purchasing goods or services on their doorstep saying it was because they ‘felt sorry’ for the seller. And the figures reveal that 40% of us would be reluctant to speak to a vulnerable neighbour if we were concerned about work that had started on their home, for fear of being seen as nosey or interfering.
This coincides with an enforcement effort headed by the National Trading Standards’ Doorstep Crime Project Team. This includes a pilot scheme across Yorkshire and The Humber which has torn up traditional local boundaries to monitor criminals operating across areas, an approach that has so far led to four arrests and 15 investigations. The team has also launched a training for a range of partners including charities working with older adults, police forces and Citizens Advice call centre staff, and is working more closely with organisations such as the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to pave the way for further breakthroughs.
Lord Toby Harris, Chair, National Trading Standards, said: “Doorstep crime continues to blight our communities and leaves many of our most vulnerable citizens scared, scarred and bankrupt. Tackling it is everyone’s responsibility. Our teams are working around the clock to find the crooks and bring them to justice, but many cases go unreported and often by the time we apprehend a gang they have done a lot of damage. We need to catch these people early and that’s why we need communities to get involved and look out for anything suspicious. Don’t worry about appearing nosey – interfere and call the Citizens Advice consumer service on 03454 04 05 06.”
Jo Swinson Consumer Affairs Minister said: “Our front doors are supposed to provide security and protection but for some criminals they are the perfect entrance through which to take advantage of those most at risk in society. Cold-callers offering unnecessary work, charging exorbitant rates or selling useless products are not just criminals, they are also damaging the security and confidence of the elderly and vulnerable. This is why we have made targeting doorstep crime a priority for the Consumer Protection Partnership and the focus for National Consumer Week. By bringing together Citizens’ Advice Service, Trading Standards Institute, National Trading Standards and Trading Standards Scotland we can educate and equip those most able to help. Neighbours, families and concerned members of the public can come to the aid of those who most need it and protect them against criminals at the front door.
“The Government is reforming consumer rights law to help people understand what their rights are and to protect them from dangerous parasites. This will help consumers know what to do to get their money back if they are pressured into signing up for something they don’t need or later regret.”
In July, the Trading Standards Institute launched the ‘Good Neighbours Stop Rogue Traders’ video competition to help raise awareness of the issue and is set to announce the winner today at City Hall in London. Meanwhile, Citizens Advice has launched new consumer education materials which give residents practical ways to spot and deal with pushy rogue traders at their door, which are available at: http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/education_resources.htm. Trading Standards Scotland also has a series of activities planned across the week. All three organisations will be holding community events across the country this week to provide advice and guidance to staff, volunteers and the public on how to deal with cold calling criminals on the doorstep.
Leon Livermore, CEO of the Trading Standards Institute, said: “Trading standards officers and police forces do an excellent job stamping out doorstep crime. However, we need citizens to help prevent doorstep crime from taking place in the first instance in order to prevent far reaching detriment from taking hold of an individual’s life, and to prove to rogue traders that Britain’s communities are out of bounds for their unscrupulous activities.
“Having witnessed firsthand as a trading standards officer the misery a rogue trader can inflict on a person, I am proud of the efforts of local authorities and the local Citizens Advice bureaux to drive this valuable campaign.”
And Gillian Guy, Chief Executive of Citizens Advice, said: “The doorstep invasion of rogue traders must end. People are being conned out of thousands of pounds in some cases. Citizens Advice and Trading Standards are working together to help victims of crime and to crack down on rogue traders to stop them doing more harm. Everyone should watch out for these rip-offs to ensure their local community leaves doorstep criminals out in the cold.”
