Spate of door-to-door conmen targeting elderly

THERE have been a number of bogus caller incidents in the county areas of north and east Cork in the past few months, with the elderly especially being targeted.

Gardaí have provided the Irish Examiner with a list of some of the recent incidents, but believe there were many more which were unreported.

August 18: A man called to the door of a 90-year-old woman at Bweeng, Mallow, and claimed he had hit her dog with his car. He said the injured animal had scampered around the back of her house. She said she didn’t own a dog, but went to the rear of her house to check if one was there. Meanwhile, the caller, described as being 30 to 40 and with dark hair, entered her house and robbed her of cash.

August 6: Two men posing as council workers called to a house in Fermoy owned by a 83-year-old woman. One distracted the woman while the other entered her home and stole a box containing cash and other valuable items.

July 14: A number of men driving a yellow truck and claiming to be council staff, started laying tarmac at a farmyard owned by an elderly man in Mitchelstown. The tarmac was described as “treacle”.

July 8: A man in a blue Toyota Corolla drove into the rear of an elderly woman’s house at Rathcooney, Glanmire. The woman then saw the driver of the car coming into the back of her home. She locked the front gate and started shouting at the intruder who fled on foot leaving the car behind.

July 16: The occupants of a 4x4 called to a house in Castlelyons, owned by a 79-year-old lady. She later discovered her car had been broken into and a handbag containing cash was stolen.

March/April: A man called to the house of an 86-year-old lady in Cobh. He claimed to be a garda, but stole cash from her. It later emerged the same individual carried out the same deception a month earlier in Youghal where he stole cash from a 79-year-old man.