Residents in Moray are being urged to look out for rogue traders after a couple were duped out of over £10,000 for tarmac works.

The alert comes as Trading Standards officers received a complaint of a couple who had agreed to a small amount of tarmac laying work in their driveway.

The rogue traders told the victims that they had left over tar from a council job, which was "completely untrue" according to the local authority. The work rapidly developed into a demand for payment of over £10,000.

Peter Adamson, Trading Standards Manager said: "We believe these people are approaching residents in rural areas and stating that they have a small quantity of tarmac 'leftover from a nearby Council job'.

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"In this particular case it was agreed that a very small area be treated but the individuals took advantage of the situation and carried out a shoddy job on hundreds of metres of driveway by putting down bitumen and chippings, a cheap product vastly inferior to proper tarmac. We understand that other similar work has recently been carried out in the area and we need to identify where that is.

"As part of the investigation, Trading Standards officers returned to a driveway that had been treated last year and were amazed to find no trace of the surface that had been laid. The roadway is covered in potholes and is in a worse condition than ever – at a loss of many thousands of pounds."

Mr Adamson added: "This is the latest example of what can happen when scammers pounce on the unsuspecting in our Community. This month is National Scams awareness month and our message is to 'be aware of being scammed'. Everyone needs to play their part in acting on scams and in this case any information would be useful to our enquiries."

(LM)