An elderly woman was reportedly scammed out of £2,000 by rogue builders in Croydon.

A woman from the Park Hill area alerted Croydon Council to the alleged con after a man knocked on her front door and told said her roof needed immediate work, with scaffolding erected.

Later on that day, the resident reportedly received a phone call from a man called ‘David’, who urged her to pay a cash downpayment of £2,000 to get the roof fixed.

She then handed over the money to the man who came to her house that day.

Another phone call, this time requesting a payment of £4,000, led the resident to talk to her neighbour who said he hadn’t arranged any repairs for his roof and hadn’t been advised to.

Alarmed, she called the police who, in turn, notified the council trading standards team. She was advised not to proceed and certainly not to hand over any more money.

The incident is being investigated by the police and trading standards.

The council’s director of safety, Andy Opie, said: “This was a nasty attempt to part a trusting older resident with thousands of pounds of her life savings. Thankfully, she realised that something wasn’t quite right and the attempt to get more money from her failed.

“I’d urge all residents to be aware that cold-hearted fraudsters like this are operating locally, and say that, under no circumstances should they be persuaded by cold callers to hand over any sort of payment whatsoever, be it cash, cheque or money transfer.

“The chances are that, once handed over, the money will never be seen again.”