LOCAL authority Trading Standards officers have joined forces to with printing businesses to tackle fraudsters in North Wales.

North Wales Trading Standards is contacting printers who produce leaflets and flyers commonly used by traders to directly promote services on the doorstep.

The engagement with printers across the region aims to highlight the risk to consumers, advise businesses, encourage business compliance and is an opportunity to reduce the volume of anonymous and untraceable leaflets within communities.

Commonly flyers are an A5 promotional card depicting gardening or roofing services with bold references to ‘OAP discounts’, ‘no job too big or small’ and ‘cooling off periods’.

Evidence from doorstep crime victims often portrays the perpetrators as plausible and professional when soliciting for work.

Criminals frequently target residential areas with leaflets or flyers before cold calling with the intent of fraud.

Larger production runs are provided commercially by online or local printing businesses.

Although a legitimate form of advertising they have been found to omit statutory business information, mislead consumers and provide no route for redress or for trading standards officers to investigate their origin.

Richard Powell, chair of North Wales Trading Standards, said: “Rogue traders continue to cause many problems for consumers across North Wales and many try to hide behind this legitimate form of advertising.

“This project is aimed at helping printing businesses understand the laws they have to comply with and at the same time make it more difficult for rogue traders to hide behind this form of advertising.”