Good afternoon residents of Winchester.

Earlier today while doing my overnight checks of all incidents in the Winchester South area, I read a report about two unknown males who have knocked on a door on Wavell Way in Stanmore, pretending to be British Gas engineers. 

The two individuals asked if they could come in for a meter reading, however the occupant became suspicious and refused entry. 

After a call to British Gas immediately after, they confirmed that although they do send engineers out as late as 19:30 (this is the time they knocked on the house), there was no record of their licenced and official engineers making that visit. 

In these circumstances, where the occupant had a slight bit of doubt about the authenticity of the visit, they did the correct thing and did not allow the unknown persons in. 

Unfortunately this is a common theme not only in the Winchester area, but around the county where we are seeing “doorstep scams” becoming more and more prevalent.  

I have previously investigated “distraction burglaries” where unknown persons are allowed in, and while the home owner is distracted, they take physical items from the house. 

There is also a fraud aspect to these “doorstep scams” where unknown persons will often quote the home owner vast amounts of money, for work that is often not required or not to the amount normally quoted. This can be for inside appliances like boilers, white goods, roof repairs, but also for outside features such as gardening and home repairs. 

I intend on speaking to the occupant on Wavell Way in person to give them some safeguarding advice and alarms for peace of mind, however I felt it appropriate to also make the rest of our Hampshire Alert users aware.

After a bit of digging online, I have found a very informative webpage on door scams from “Which?”, that explains in detail how home owners can protect themselves from doorstep scams similar to those mentioned above.

Doorstep scams and how to avoid them - Which?

If anyone else has been the victim of a doorstep scam recently, please report it to us on 101 or via our online portal. 

I will complete some house to house enquiries in the Wavell Way area over the next few days, to see if there are any CCTV images of the persons suspected of being involved. 

Please feel free to reply to this message if you have any further questions or concerns.

Have a good remainder of your Weekend, and I hope those who attended the Fireworks display last night enjoyed it. You may have seen myself and my Winchester South colleague PCSO Rob Window high up on the communication tower with the best view! 

Regards,

PC 28024 Will Andrews

Winchester South Beat DNO 
Winchester Neighbourhood Team