Help me help my neighbour from being robbed
Help me help my neighbour from being robbed
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Discussion

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

83 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
My neighbour is 90 and I’m certain his gardener is lifting his leg. I am going to stop it.

One example is that there is an invoice now being chased for work that I know - and can prove with cctv - wasn’t done: saying that the grass was cut on a day on which the gardener didn’t come to the property (he didn’t come at all that week)

It is one thing to make sure the invoice is not paid, but at what point - if at all - can it become a police matter?

Cankicker

219 posts

88 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
Maybe speak to the gardener in the first instance, portray things as an innocent mistake, a mix up? That will both raise the issue & let the guy know you know. If that doesn't work, think again but why go in with your size tens if you can possibly avoid it?

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

83 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
It is already past that stage unfortunately.

I am only involved because the old boy's daughter asked me if I would help - she lives a long way away and she also suspects the gardener has been on the fiddle for some time. The old boy is well liked in the village and I know the gardener has three other clients here that will, I am sure, bin him off immediately the daughter mentions this to them - which she says she is going to do this week when she comes up to visit.

The gardener had a chance to "check that he didn't get his dates mixed up" and has been advised that the CCTV shows he wasn't in attendance on (or within 4 days either side) of the date he says he cut the grass. He is sticking to his version of events and chasing payment from the old boy - despite being asked by the daughter to deal with her over this and not her dad.

The sum involved is £30, but the principle is that the gardener is trying to rob a vulnerable person (again) and that isn't OK.

And yes, his services have been cancelled.

fatboy b

9,665 posts

245 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
Surely if the grass was cut, it would look cut? Are there ‘before the day’ and ‘after the day’ pics/videos?

Rewe

1,016 posts

121 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
What help do you need?

A disputed invoice is not a police matter btw.

fatboy b

9,665 posts

245 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
Rewe said:
What help do you need?

A disputed invoice is not a police matter btw.
But fraud is.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

83 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
Grass was not cut - video shows that

A disputed invoice is one thing, but is there a line between a disputed invoice and a fraud?

WJNB

2,637 posts

190 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
If I understand properly the gardener has been sacked & the outstanding issue is just £30.
Given the amount is it REALLY worth you exerting mental physical energy trying to right a wrong however unsavoury & however much you want to help your neighbour?
As the gardener has other customers in the locality maybe a quiet word with them in case they are being conned as well.

hyphen

26,262 posts

119 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
Gardener is chasing payment, op has evidence of not being done.

May be only £30 but would you pay up? I wouldn't

InitialDave

15,109 posts

148 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
For what reason is the gardener still chasing the £30?
1) There's some kind of mistake, and he has done the work? Or at least he genuinely believes he has?
2) He thinks if he just drops it, he's admitting his guilt?
3) He's too thick to understand when the gig is up?
4) Some other reason I'm not thinking of?

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

83 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
WJNB said:
If I understand properly the gardener has been sacked & the outstanding issue is just £30.
Given the amount is it REALLY worth you exerting mental physical energy trying to right a wrong however unsavoury & however much you want to help your neighbour?
As the gardener has other customers in the locality maybe a quiet word with them in case they are being conned as well.
If the neighbour in question was a 35 year old with all her faculties and I hadn't been asked by one of her relatives to assist then I would be doing nothing

It is only because the neighbour is 90 and not in the very best of health and that his daughter has asked me to assist that I have taken an interest

Stealing money from a frail old man by conning him on the gardening isn't many steps away from stealing it from him by robbing him outside the post office on pension day really. It is not OK.

I have found an email address for the local police safer neighbourhood team and am going to email asking for their thoughts on the matter.

Derek Smith

49,803 posts

277 months

Saturday 15th June 2019
quotequote all
JPJPJP said:
If the neighbour in question was a 35 year old with all her faculties and I hadn't been asked by one of her relatives to assist then I would be doing nothing

It is only because the neighbour is 90 and not in the very best of health and that his daughter has asked me to assist that I have taken an interest

Stealing money from a frail old man by conning him on the gardening isn't many steps away from stealing it from him by robbing him outside the post office on pension day really. It is not OK.

I have found an email address for the local police safer neighbourhood team and am going to email asking for their thoughts on the matter.
It's not theft, and it is not robbery. Whether it is fraud is open to question. I doubt it can be proved.

I'd be interested in the response from the neighbourhood policing team, if you'd be kind enough to post it.