Two men arrested after scam in Radford Semele

Last Wednesday two men visited the 76-year-old woman at her home address, claiming to be from the Metropolitan Police.

They told her bank cards had been used fraudulently and persuaded her to hand them over.

They then used to bank cards to withdraw money in Luton before returning them to the victim. Following on from this, they told the victim that her money wasn’t safe in her bank account and asked her to transfer it to a safe account.

They asked the victim to call them once she had £5,000 in cash and they would collect it.

The scam was foiled after the victim went to her bank and requested to move a substantial amount of cash from one account to another and then withdraw £5,000.

A quick thinking bank employee became suspicious and contacted police leading to the arrest of the two suspects.

The men, one aged 36 and from Luton and the other aged 39 from Dunstable, have been arrested on suspicion of fraud by false representation, and have been released on bail until Monday June 1 while further enquires are carried out.

Police Sergeant Allison Wiggin said: “There have been a number of incidents in which fraudsters have attempted to obtain bank details over the phone but in this case the suspects attended the victim’s address.

“Please make sure your elderly friends and relatives are aware of this scam.

“If you have been a victim of this type of crime call 101 or contact your safer neighbourhood team.”