Police are urging householders to be on their guard for a gang of rogue traders targeting elderly people.

Detectives are investigating a number of reports of men calling at pensioners’ homes in Plymouth and Exeter over the Easter weekend deploying high-pressure tactics to carry out so-called ‘essential’ work on properties. The victims have then been forced to pay thousands of pounds for shoddy and substandard work.

Officers are linking four offences in Plymouth in the last week and looking into similar reports in Exeter.

Three men are believed to be travelling around the area in a blue van.

For more information on how to protect yourself against cold callers: https://www.devon-cornwall.police.uk/advice/your-home/doorstep-crime/