12:00pm Sunday 29th August 2010
By Ben Parsons, Crime Reporter
Speakers are being fitted in homes to warn people not to open the front door to cold-callers.
The devices are switched on by movement when householders are about to open their doors and play a recorded message warning them of the risks of rogue traders.
Police hope the scheme will help prevent vulnerable people such as dementia sufferers and the very elderly being duped into parting with their cash to unscrupulous criminals.
The sensors which are given out only where police think they are most needed play a voice message of up to 20 seconds, which can be activated either by movement or by connection to a doorbell.
They are part of Sussex Police's Operation Rogue Trader.
Officers in Brighton and Hove are carrying out a series of patrols to prevent illegal traders and distraction burglars.
Police and trading standards look for vans and trucks used by rogue traders, who tout for building or gardening jobs before overcharging for poor-quality, unnecessary or non-existent work.
Sergeant Chris Lane said: "These people rely on the use of the roads. The longer we go on doing this hopefully the more of a difference we can make."
Inspector Andy Fleming said: "Rogue traders prey on vulnerable people in our communities by either vastly overcharging them for work done or supposedly done or carrying out work which is substandard and at times dangerous."
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