A CRACKDOWN on financial scams targeting elderly and vulnerable people across the borough has been unveiled as part of a £100,000 boost to trading standards.

Dudley Council has given the green light to a borough-wide scam busters scheme to target rogue firms who prey on vulnerable people – thanks to receiving extra cash for adult social care from the government to help protect vulnerable people and tackle delays from hospitals.

The money, from the Better Care Fund, which was acknowledged at the council’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday July 19, will help to fund extra staff in trading standards who will be dedicated to tackling financial crime which targets the elderly and vulnerable.

Councillor Nicolas Barlow, Dudley’s cabinet member for adult social care, said: “We very much welcome this extra funding from the government to invest in such an important area. We are looking at ways to make sure this money is invested into key areas of adult social care including helping tackle financial crimes targeting the elderly and vulnerable.”

The new scam busters initiative follows the case of Veronica Robinson who was jailed for five years for conning a 93-year-old dementia sufferer out of £250,000 after a successful case led by Dudley’s trading standards.

The extra money for trading standards will fund neighbourhood visits from the team to speak to vulnerable people about guarding against becoming a victim.

They will also be speaking to traders to make checks on their work and will have more capacity to investigate and lead prosecutions into criminals and rogue traders.

Councillor Peter Miller, Dudley’s cabinet member responsible for trading standards, said: “Our trading standards team has already done some amazing work helping safeguard vulnerable people and this extra funding will go a long way to extending that work.

“This new crackdown will help target offenders before they strike, support people most at risk and pursue those criminals who con people out of thousands of pounds.”

According to national figures, only five per cent of victims report being scammed to the authorities but suffer losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Dudley trading standards received 369 rogue trader complaints last year and currently have 49 priority referrals from 465 cases.