Residents warned of bogus fish sellers

POLICE have arrested two men after people in the Melksham area were scammed by door-to-door salesmen selling  fish.

Homeowners in Melksham, Bromham, and Marlborough have found themselves forced into buying vast amounts of fresh fish.

The salesmen visit people at home and offer to sell fresh fish without disclosing the quantity or price of the produce. It is often not until afterwards that customers realise they have been charged excessive amounts of money.

Detective Sergeant Andrew Lemon of Wiltshire Police said,  “This is blatantly over charging and targeting members of the public who are vulnerable and elderly.

“On Tuesday 2nd June 2015, two males were arrested in Market Lavington on suspicion of Fraud by False Representation.  They have been released on conditional police bail.  They are aged 54 and 21 and are from the North East of the UK.

“We are appealing to members of the public, who may have purchased fresh fish from a door-to-door salesman or from a company called North Shore Fish, based in Durham, to come forward.

“We also want to hear from anyone who believes they may have been over charged or has any other concerns in relation to incidents like these.”

The salesmen often target old people’s complexes, offering a ‘pensioners’ special deal’.  The salesmen do not give prices for the fish, and victims are often told to enter their card PINs without checking the amount charged.

Various tactics are used, such as telling the victim to go outside in direct sunlight to complete the transaction and holding the machine into the sun at the time payment is requested.

The receipts are put in the bags of fish, which allows the receipt to become wet and unreadable.

Operation Arwen is a national Trading Standards operation targeting the selling of fish door to door by salesmen from the North of England.