Scam warning issued over fake council officer selling bin collection subscriptions for cash

Colchester City Council's Customer Service team has received reports of the incident and believes only a single individual is involved in targeting local homes.

The fraudster has been going door-to-door selling counterfeit garden waste subscriptions, prompting council officials to issue an urgent alert to residents.

Officials said that the council never sells permits or bins in person and does not accept cash payments under any circumstances adding that they never initiate sales through text messages or emails either.

The scammer has been identified as wearing a high-visibility jacket while pretending to be a council officer during his visits.

The scam has so far been confined to the Tiptree area of Colchester, with all reported incidents believed to be linked to the same individual.

Local authorities have stressed that legitimate council representatives would never approach residents at their homes to sell waste collection services or request cash payments.

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Colchester City Council has clarified that the only legitimate way to subscribe to garden waste collection is through their official website or by contacting their Customer Service team directly.

The official fortnightly garden waste service subscription period runs from April 1 to March 31 annually, though residents can sign up at any point during the year.

All legitimate payments to join the service must be made via direct debit, with no exceptions for other payment methods.

Cllr Martin Goss, Portfolio Holder for Waste, Neighbourhood Services and Leisure, said: "We have been made aware that an individual is posing as a council officer in a high visibility jacket and is selling fake garden waste subscription service stickers and bins to Colchester residents. This is a scam."

He added: "It is a terrible shame that we are having to share this message, but please ignore this person and report the incident to the police as soon as possible."

Residents who encounter the fraudster are urged to contact the police immediately and avoid engaging with the individual.

The warning comes after a couple who cleaned up rubbish outside their own home were fined £1,200.

Veronika Mike, 41, and Zoltan Pinter, 46, both from Stoke-on-Trent, were distraught when waste was left outside their two-bedroom property.

Pinter cleared up the rubbish by piling the mess into a cardboard box labelled with his name in April this year.

He hoped the box would be collected if he left it next to his household refuse, but binmen decided the box itself counted as litter.

The couple were fined £600 each after being issued with an illegal dumping notice.

Stoke-on-Trent city council said they had fined the duo for "failing to transfer household waste to an authorised authority".

Pinter said: "I couldn't put in the bins because they were full, so I left it beside them."

"We didn't want to have to look at it for another week," Mike added.

"There was a lot of rubbish lying around, but they don't care, they just found one name on the box Zoltan's, and they charged us. It's not fair.

"Even though it was only my name on the box, they sent a fixed penalty to both of us. That's very, very strange."