RESIDENTS in Middlesbrough are being warned against people knocking on doors offering to carry out building work.
The principal trading standards officer at Middlesbrough Council, Sinead Upton, said: "We have received complaints that the town is currently being targeted by people from outside the area posing as builders.
"They are driving around the estates in a van preying on people's fears, particularly the elderly, trying to persuade them that work needs doing."
She advises residents not to be swayed and said: "People will probably find that no work needs doing.
"It is a con. If they do carry out any work, it is liable to be of poor quality with the defects only becoming apparent a few days later."
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