Rogue Tree Surgeons

A gang of rogue tree surgeons have been handed sentences of up to 7½ years:

Posing as tree surgeons, the three workmen preyed on the elderly so successfully that they netted £225,000.

Er, riiiight. We get folk like this calling round on a fairly regular basis during the summer months. If you don’t want your tree trimmed, they switch tack and ask if you want it cut down. One cheeky bugger tried this line when I pointed out to him that our tree had already been trimmed recently. Having had it trimmed, I was hardly likely to want it cut down. But, what strikes me is the gullibility of the victims as much as the criminality of the perpetrators:

The court was told that one victim was charged £2,750 for 45 minutes’ work to remove a tree and treat the stump. Another paid £600 to have a holly bush trimmed. A third victim was charged £500 to have a small tree removed from her garden.

I’m sorry, but I have real difficulty getting into the mindset of someone who is willing to hand over a four figure sum to a complete stranger who does little more than knock on the door and ask for it. What happened to getting alternative quotes for the work? What happened to asking oneself if the work really needs doing? And, importantly, having decided that it does need doing, what happened to seeking out competent, qualified practitioners? What indeed? I am tempted to take the cynical line and point out that people who are prepared to give shysters huge sums of money probably deserve to lose it anyway – a fool and his money, it seems is as apt today as it ever was.

Sandra Martin was not so readily taken in:

Sandra Martin, 60, told the court that a man visited her home in Old Basing, Hampshire, posing as a well-known, reputable tree surgeon called Donald Knight. She said: “I had a knock on my door from a man who told me he was Mr Knight and that my poplar tree needed pruning. I asked him which poplar tree and he pointed to my telegraph pole, which has ivy growing up it.”

Mrs Martin became suspicious and called the police. In total 22 people were defrauded by the gang.

You’d have to be extremely stupid to mistake a telegraph pole for a poplar tree. That or very, very drunk. Or both, I suppose.

I have a simple and effective method for dealing with opportunists who think that they can sell me something on my doorstep. It consists of one syllable, starts with “n” and finishes with “o”. I then close the door. Saves an awful lot of money.