Irish gardening expert Marie Staunton has warned households about fake gardener scams after her own parents were targeted and allegedly ripped off by rogue traders in Ireland
Gardening
Gardening expert Marie Staunton has released a video warning households about fraudulent gardeners who conned her own parents out of a significant sum of money.
Marie said that people need to be aware of cold callers coming to your door pretending to be gardeners or arborists. She said they may be equip with fake flyers and dressed in professional gardening gear.
She fears these scammers are getting enormous amount of cash from unsuspecting older people. She told Newstalk : “These guys and people like them are scamming people out of thousands, not just a couple of hundreds, not just a couple of hundreds.”
“On Wednesday, my parents let these guys come into the house, under the pretence to do the garden, and they were ripped off for a very sizeable amount of money,” she said. She said that having carried out virtually no work, other than trimming a couple of shrubs, the bogus gardeners departed after an hour and a half.
She said that they claimed there was a rats’ nest at the rear of the garden that they had treated, and that they would return the following day for the remainder of the payment to remove their equipment.
“So I went out at half past twelve yesterday to wait in the front garden for them to arrive. This guy arrives, walks up the road, and starts to go into the house, and I stop him, and I said, ‘Can I help you?'” Marie said.
She alleged that the man then claimed that he and the van behind him were there to remove items from the garden, to which Marie responded: “You did nothing yesterday, what are you going to be taking out of the garden?”
“Well, I have to get some more money”, said the man, to which Marie replied, “You’re getting no more money here.”
She filmed the man on her mobile phone as he vacated the property.
kilmurrynursery / Instagram(Image: kilmurrynursery / Instagram)
“He walked down the road where there was a car waiting for him, so they were never going to be doing anything.”
Marie said that the van sped off in reverse at such velocity that it could have posed a serious risk to any children in the vicinity. Marie has the registration of the vehicle thanks to her neighbour.
“I wouldn’t have known nothing about this had my neighbour next door to my mother hadn’t alerted me to the fact that there was something going on. So, tell your parents or your grandparents not to open the door to people cold-calling, saying they’re going to be doing whatever they’re going to be doing in the garden. It’s unbelievable the amount of cash they got off my parents.”
Marie plans to report the matter to An Garda Síochána. She also shared that she had to tend to her mother, who was suffering from chest pains as a result of the ordeal, reports RSVP Live.
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