The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
BOGUS tradesmen who are travelling to Clare and ripping off vulnerable people should be banned from entering the county, said Deputy Cathal Crowe at Monday’s meeting of the Clare Joint Policing Committee.
He said one group of what he called “bogus tradesmen” from the North Kerry area have been in Clare since last winter.
“They don’t operate that covertly at all,” he warned.
Deputy Crowe said they had been in his own area of South East Clare, in Kilrush and in Gort, and distributed the same advertising material in each area.
He said they charge for work that they fail to carry out correctly and that they are “cleaning out older people to the tune of tens of thousands”.
Detective Inspector Padraic Frawley said that in many cases the victims of such crimes had been among the most vulnerable members of the community.
He said there had been fewer than ten such cases reported over the last few years, but there had probably been an element of under reporting as well as restricted movements due to Covid.
He said that the crime can border what he called “civil territory” and that when no work at all is done it can be far easier to deal with than when substandard work is done.
While there may be under reporting because people are vulnerable or may be embarrassed, he said that Gardai will be supportive.
Advice was given that if someone calls to one’s door, offering to do work, they should be asked for their credentials, and if they are bona fide tradesmen they will not have an issue, but if they are not they are likely to leave.
Deputy Crowe said that one family are specialising in this type of crime and that there are likely to be prosecutions.
He also said that there should be exclusion orders for people found to have committed such offences.
“They have no business coming to this county and when they do, they leave with bags of cash,” he claimed.
He said that Irish people involved in such activity have already been barred from certain cities in Australia and Britain, and there is no reason it shouldn’t happen in Ireland.
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
