Woman, 80, swindled out of £2,000 in Frodsham

POLICE are investigating an incident at Frodsham in which an 80-year-old woman was swindled out of £2,000 by bogus gardeners.
They are warning householders to be aware of the dangers of tradesmen calling at homes offering to do work.
In the case under investigation, a woman living in the Townfield Lane area received a leaflet through her door offering to do gardening work.
She wanted some ivy removing from a garage wall and called the mobile phone number on the leaflet. It went to voice mail and later someone called her back.
Two men came to inspect the work and quoted £2,000 – and said they would want paying in advance.
The victim, noting that there was a Helsby address on the leaflet, agreed and handed over the money.
The men left, promising to return, but failed to do so.
Subsequent enquiries have revealed that the Helsby address does not exist. The men took their leaflet away with them so the original telephone number cannot be traced.
A relative of the victim said: “She is obviously very upset. She cannot afford to lose £2,000 but it seems unlikely she will get it back. But she wants to make sure other people are put on their guard and that the same thing doesn’t happen again.
“We have heard there has been another case locally but we don’t know anything about it.”
Anyone with information likely to help police enquiries should call them on 101