HUDDERSFIELD MP Barry Sheerman is calling for immediate action to stop door-to-door cold callers who swindle vulnerable customers out of their life savings.

He said the town had been targeted by conmen and women because of its close proximity to the M62.

And Mr Sheerman said the Government must intervene.

He said: "There is little legislation or control over cold-call doorstep selling and `traders' who often give false or no documentation and contact details.

"There are numerous stories of largely elderly victims who have been swindled from their savings."

A study by the Trading Standards Institute showed that 95.7% of householders do not want doorstep sellers calling at their homes.

Mr Sheerman said he had tabled Parliamentary questions to ask the Government what was being done to protect individuals from door-to-door callers.

Mr Paul Smith, principal officer with the fair trading section of West Yorkshire Trading Standards, contacted the MP because of the number of cases it had dealt with.

"We have had 276 complaints in West Yorkshire since January this year and 14 reported in Huddersfield in the last six months," he said.

"Itinerant traders use major link roads to sell wares very quickly."

Mr Smith said traders usually preyed on very old or vulnerable people.

"They look for unwashed curtains and unkempt gardens."

Typically they would offer to resurface a driveway with Tarmac for about £300, but would then ask for £3,000 when the work was done.

They would then become intimidating and even get a taxi to take the victim to the bank.

Alternatively they would claim that wooden facia under the guttering needed replacing with uPVC ones and would do a shoddy job.

"They should take off the old one off and put a new one on," said Mr Smith.

"Instead they put a new one up on the old one and bang it in with nails."

He said that Trading Standards now had a rapid response team that came out to people's houses if they fell victim to these `traders'.

The team would help persuade the vendor to go or negotiate an appropriate price.

It had been out 96 times since February this year and had saved the public an estimated £29,500.

"It is very new," said Mr Smith.

"We had a call for help yesterday morning from neighbours of a man who was being misled and was scared.

"In Huddersfield we got a call from a woman whose father had had a salesman in his house for four-and-a-half hours trying to sell him a bed.

"We had to attend to get him out of the house."

The rapid response team can be contacted on 01133 848848.

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