HOUSEHOLDERS are allegedly being ripped off by door to door tradesman selling household cleaning products.

Now residents in Hartlepool are being warned not to answer the door to the so-called "Nottingham Knockers" who have been known to intimidate people.

Ian Harrison, Hartlepool Council's trading standards officer, said: "We have recently been made aware of traders knocking on people’s doors offering cleaning products such as a duster, brushes and disinfectant for overinflated prices.

“The traders, who are known in enforcement circles as ‘Nottingham Knockers’ due to the origin of the practice, will often have a sympathetic story, claiming for example that they have just been released from prison and no-one will give them a job and they just trying to get back on their feet.

"However, in reality this is just a fabrication aimed at appealing to a person’s good nature to make their victim more likely to buy the items they are selling, and in most cases when they are not even needed.”

Trading standards have found that the items that the sellers are selling, can be purchased from retailers for a fraction of the price.

In some cases they have sold dusters for £10, which was bought from a pound shop.

Working in groups or on their own, they can target a specific area, mainly likely to target the elderly or vulnerable on any given day.