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Conmen clampdown launched by Free Press staff

The Monmouth Free Press is helping local police in the fight against doorstepconmen.

A story written by reporter Andy Sherwill on two doorstep tricksters whotried to con their way into the homes of two elderly people was such a hit with thetown’s police they asked to photocopy the paper as a leaflet.

The paper’s design sub-editor Nigel Corten offered to go one better andrestyled the story into an A4 leaflet titled Beating The Bogus Callers.

He also delved into the paper’s archive and pulled in a cartoon image theHome Office had used in a previous campaign to warn of bogus callers.

PC Di Arnold thanked the Free Press for its support and said: “This articlegives a local angle to a national problem and explains how to check onidentity cards that are sometimes produced by these bogus callers.”

Free Press editor Chris Mair said: “Andy and Nigel came up with the ideawhen the police asked permission to copy the story we had published.

“It was a simple yet effective initiative by them and one that is absolutely right for a community newspaper to support.”

One of the conmen posed as a double glazing salesman and the other as a water board employee.

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