Crusader Fake builders scam widow
FAKE builders cheated an elderly widow out of £700 then heaped pressure on an honest small business when they hijacked its address and used it to front their scams. For owner Bridget Maendl, who runs postal and print hub Mail Boxes Etc at London Bridge in the capital it has meant spending hours defending her firm and explaining to short-changed consumers it too had been a victim of the scoundrels.
“I have answered people’s queries because I don’t want anyone to think we had anything to do with this con or that the crooks use our services – and because I don’t like to see people at such a loss when they’ve paid money in good faith,” she explains.
Crusader discovered the crooked network of at least four firms operating in and around London when a worried neighbour of Joyce Smith, 91, contacted us.
Margery Harris describes how Joyce had answered the door to a “charmer” offering to paint her house and claiming to be from Property Wise Ltd of No 2 London Bridge Walk in Southwark.
Two men spent an hour “fiddling about” in Joyce’s home the next day, then left with the £700 cash they had asked her for, promising they would return the following week. Much to her distress they didn’t. The women’s calls to the numbers on the card given went unanswered.
It was the same when Crusader tried but after digging we learnt that Trading Standards was already investigating and the London Bridge address, although real, was not connected. Bridget wasn’t surprised to hear her premises had been abused yet again. Squatters, as they are called, routinely target postal service companies. In this case Property Wise Ltd, an outfit not connected to a similarly named estate agent, was not registered at Companies House but was listed on business directory yell.com in its free category where firms input their own details.
Another associate with the address appeared to be Active Roofing & Building Ltd. This too has a listing on the online directory but the phone numbers don’t work.
A third company, Citywisebuilders Ltd, also claims to be based at the Mail Boxes Etc address. The firm is listed at Companies House with the same details, although no other contact numbers appear to be available.
Bridget followed Trading Standards’ guidance and alerted Companies House about the conflicting information.
However despite filling in the forms, she received a baffling response saying that her application had been turned down as she hadn’t supplied the relevant supporting information.
“But I explained the information they are asking for are the details they are actually listing on their own site,” says a frustrated Bridget.
“I’ve never met these squatters, so I can’t give any more detail.”
Since then, she says, she has given up trying to get a correction made and finds it’s more effective if she answers victims’ inquiries directly.
Crusader broke the unhappy news to Joyce and Margery that the £700 had almost certainly gone for good.
“Joyce feels she has let herself down,” Margery admits to Crusader, “but it helps you finding out the truth and that her story might stop others being conned.”
In response to Crusader’s request to investigate, Yell has suspended the Property Wise Ltd listing.
“All the customer needs to do is reach out to our customer services,” Yell commented.
“Removing this will certainly help, thank you,” adds Bridget.