A rogue trading gardener ripped off a pair of Frodsham pensioners of their life savings after charging £6,000 for just an hour and halfs work

Aug 20 2009 Chester Chronicle

A rogue trading gardener ripped off a pair of Frodsham pensioners of their life savings after charging £6,000 for just an hour and halfs work

ELDERLY victims of a rogue gardener are warning residents to be vigilant after being charged £6,000 for two hours work.

Pensioners Margaret and Ken Betts, of Frodsham, were cold-called by a man purporting to be from a ‘tree and gardening service’, offered to cut a rotten branch from a tree in their garden.

Ken Betts said: “He had been talking to a neighbour and then saw my tree and quite rightly said one of the branches was rotten,”

“He quoted me about £300 for taking the one branch off and I accepted that.

“He started work and after a while called me over and said ‘look this is all rotten and so are the roots, I can do the rest of it if you want to take the roots out?’”

“I said okay and he did that, it took him about an hour and a half to two hours altogether.

“When it came to paying he wanted £6,000 and he wanted the money that day, previously he had said a cheque was all right but he would rather have cash and he could take so much off because he wouldn’t have to charge VAT.

“I got the money and paid him, I told him I thought it was extortion, he was a smooth operator.”

Arriving in a plain white van, the gardener gave Mr and Mrs Betts a business card with contact numbers.

The Chronicle has not had a response after contacting the numbers.

The gardener even came back to check the roots had died.

“They just came calling around and handing out their cards, but they didn’t have an address on,” added Mr Betts.

“He’s been back a couple of times to check the roots and check for the so-called poison.”

Cheshire West and Chester Trading Standards have confirmed they are investigating the incident.

Regulatory services manager Vanessa Griffiths said: “The scam starts with a cold-call, turning up uninvited, these people will always request cash, no cheques or card payments. They will say a price and that price will change.

“We don’t want to scare people, we just want to make them more aware.

“Do not do business with people who call unsolicited. Do not say yes. Go out and get quotes from two or three business and make sure they have a premises.”