Police forces, as well as Trading Standards, have warned that fake coronavirus marshals have been pretending to check for rule breaches but have stolen from homes once they are inside people’s homes. This news comes after UNN’s Oliver Down learned of con artists pretending to be healthcare workers offering fraudulent virus tests in order to get inside houses.
Britain’s newly recruited called COVID-19 secure marshals do not have any powers to enter people’s homes, enforce social distancing or issue fines. Bedfordshire Police have issued a warning to the public after two men tried to enter a property in the Dunstable area of the county.
The two men in question told the gentleman they attended that if he refused to let them in then he would be fined. However, when the resident asked them for ID, and they didn’t produce any, he refused to let them in and kept the security chain on the door.
Police have said that at this point one of the offenders stopped the door being closed with his foot but that both men left the scene after the man again refused to let them in. In addition to this, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute have said that they have received reports of a number of similar incidents involving people pretending to be COVID marshals and medical professionals to get inside people’s homes during the pandemic.
Katherine Hart from the CTSI has said: ‘Since March we have seen so many different instances of fraudsters using the pandemic as an opportunity to defraud the public. These scams are shifting in their theme as the rules and regulations change with individuals now pretending to be COVID-19 secure marshals. COVID-19 secure marshals will never come to your door unannounced and do not have the right of entry, or the right to issue fines’.
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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