Gardener Scam In Brighton, East Sussex

[arjay]

This week I was awoken early in the morning by a man at the front door stating that my usual gardener had asked him to come and work in his place.
He stated that he had already done some work in spraying the weeds in my garden and that he would mow my lawn front and back in two weeks' time. He wanted £40 upfront.
I tried to get him to wait for the £40 until he had completed the mowing of the lawns, but he persisted in his demand.
I told him there was no problem with weeds and that he should not have done that without my permission. He stated that he had paid £25 for the spraying equipment and fluid.
Stupidly, in my sleepy state, I paid him the £40
I only found out that I had been scammed when my usual gardener turned up this morning and stated that he had never asked anybody to replace him!

[Tilly2]

Awww! That's terrible, Arjay. Did the first bloke, the scammer, actually do anything?

[Davemano]

Suggest he may be local or how did he know that you employed a gardener.

[Gizmonster]

Shame he didn't come to our house (although we are a LONG way from Brighton) as we've got CCTV.
I'd have great pleasure in plastering his piccie all over social media in order to name and shame him.
I hope you somehow manage to catch him ......

[arjay]

Thank you for your replies, Gizmonster,Davemano and Tilly 2.
No, he did nothing at all.
He came through my house to see the see the lawn at the back, and noticed that I had a dozen or really nice plastic bags from Oakwood frozen food meals company,
"That's just what I want", he said "I'll pay you for them, I need a thousand". I let him have them for nothing.
I suppose I am lucky that he didn't attack me and get away with taking something more valuable.
But my gardener is a good chap so a friend of his must be OK, I thought.
I can see clearly through the front door, and usually when a stranger visits, I put the chain on first before opening the door.
Fortunately, I live in a safe area of Brighton as we have a good local Neighbourhood Watch Scheme.

[goodgoalie]

Did you ask him if he could name your gardener?

[gness]

Arjay....that's awful.....but Davemano makes a good point...he knew you employed a gardener so he must have some knowledge of the area...
Do you have something like Streetlife where you could post this and I'd also let NW know so they could put it in their booklet....x

[Guilbert53]

I would contact the police and let them know as he may be targeting others in the area.

Also sadly now he knows you have paid money to him once he may come back under some other pretext to get more money.

I work on the principle of NEVER dealing with anyone at the front door I don't know.

If they are trying to sell something, or offering to do work, or doing a survey or whatever, just say no thanks and close the door on them.