Police Issue warning after rogue traders started offering driveway work in rural areas
According to Cheshire Police a team of rogue traders have been targeting rural communities offering to pave driveways using tarmac or imprinted concrete and then charging “extortionate” amounts of money and getting people to pay under duress.. A spokesperson for the Cheshire Constabulary added that these are more than likely part of the traveller community and are desperate to catch them before they move onto a new area.
In the meantime the Police are urging local people to use a reputable Warrington Driveway Company company for any projects and to not accept work in this way.
The Police said: “It would appear they been targeting rural communities on the whole so they can pass under the radar. There’s been a couple of farmers who have been targeted, and people with large rural premises where you have larger driveways. They’ll be sketchy about the costs and make the price sound very reasonable and then hit you with a massive bill at the end… One victim said then she did question the amount remembering them saying a much lower price at first but the scammer said that the cost they mentioned was for materials only as this is how driveway work is priced…
Their targets seem to be older people who they can intimidate into paying
Police have advise Cheshire residents to seek recommendations and quotes before getting work done and not to fall for tricks that start with the line ‘we’ve got a little left over from a job we’ve done down the road, would you like us to do some cheap work for you?’ when in reality prices have been reported to be up to 10 times the going rate for substandard work.
The Police said they have also had reports of the con men leaving bogus negative reviews online for genuine local driveway companies so they can “put people off” getting quotes.. These reports have been passed onto our Online Fraud Prevention team but they urge local driveway and paving companies to keep an eye on their business reviews and immediately report these fake reviews to Google.
Police Recommendations
“If you’ve got work you want done, make sure you go to a reputable company, perhaps ask people on one of these local Facebook groups to recommend someone,” they added. “At least that way, there’s recourse if there’s any issues with it. You might pay a little bit more initially getting it done by a proper firm, but you’re not going to get threats and intimidation after a shoddy job.
“Most of these people are just unskilled amateurs doing a shoddy job and then charging extortionate amounts of money for it. In some cases, if they recognise the vulnerability in someone, they are more likely to target those people and even go back for more.
Local driveway company Dimension Driveways based in Culcheth, Warrington added that “Even if the work looks fine these rogues will not have taken all the necessary steps or use correct compounds or mixes and the driveway will more than likely need ripping up after just a few months when it starts to sink and/or crack” They also confirmed that no genuine driveway company quotes you for materials only. A genuine company will price the job as a whole because they know how long the project will take.
Quoting for materials and labour separately and then dragging the labour on for a long a possible is a well known scammers trick so is using threat and intimidation to force payment.