A RENEWED drive to tackle the menace of bogus workmen and confidence tricksters who prey on thousands of elderly people each year was launched yesterday in Glasgow.
Operation Hamelin II will involve the eight Scottish police forces, British Transport Police, Customs and Excise, the Benefits Agency, and Northumbria, Cumbria, Cleveland, and Durham constabularies.
A key part of the strategy has been enlisting media support - to increase public awareness and to boost confidence so that offences are reported - and to that end yesterday Mr John Orr, Strathclyde's chief constable, introduced a number of elderly victims.
Agnes O'Rourke, 87, who lives in the centre of Motherwell, described how a man purporting to be from the water board distracted her attention by talking about imminent water disruptions while his fellow-crook ransacked drawers in another room and made off with her #400 nest-egg.
Mrs O'Rourke told The Herald: ''I am sadder and wiser. I now treat everyone with suspicion. I demand identification and badges from anyone at the door.''
Mrs Catherine Murphy, 71, of Kilsyth, described how she was conned out of #35 by a bogus gardener who first demanded #100. She succumbed, because she was expecting a genuine gardener the following day and the criminal convinced her that he was this man's son.
Mrs Murphy said: ''I felt very silly, a fool for letting myself being taken in.''
The police showed a videotape of an interview between a detective and a 95-year-old widow who had also been conned and who had, in her own words, lost her will to live. The woman, who paid a man #120 for a roof repair which was never done, died shortly afterwards.
Mr Orr said yesterday: ''This has emerged as a highly significant community safety issue. As we have investigated this type of crime, we have discovered it is far more prevalent than previously thought. The trauma visited on one of the most vulnerable sections of society is shocking. This is a really serious social problem.''
The most recent figures, a seasonal 31% rise in bogus caller offences as criminals cash in on house repair and gardening scams, also illustrates a truth learned from Strathclyde Police's Spotlight initiatives - that the force must continue to throw resources at specific crimes to maintain the initial gains against criminals.
The launch of the original Hamelin scheme last July revealed for the first time the extent of the crime - an average of 10 per month across the force area.
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