They appear in uniforms and with building equipment; they offer their services (at exceptionally competitive rates) to repair homes and roofs damaged by recent storms – and then, once they have received the first tranche of payments, they ‘disappear’ with jobs incomplete.
This is the warning from GNR police who have published a video on the new modus operandi of a transnational Irish group that has been known in the past as “the tarmac gang” – people who offer to tarmac roads and driveways (again at extremely competitive rates) and ‘disappear’ long before the job is completed.
The GNR message is “Don’t open the door to people you don’t know; don’t give personal details out (to ditto); never pay for any service without a signed contract; don’t be taken in by “offers that seem too good to be true”.
Potentially even worse than the ‘disappearing mid-job’ issue is the other possibility that the ‘workers’ start demanding sums ‘far above those initially agreed’, resorting to coercion and intimidation to press victims to pay up.
According to information now circulating: “Leiria municipal council has already confirmed reports of the presence of this group in the borough. According to the council, these are people who just speak English; they drive foreign-plated cars (Irish and Belgian) and offer services at reduced rates, potentially being associated with thefts and violent assaults”.
ASAE (Portugal’s authority for economic and food safety) is currently monitoring economic activities as a result of the storms – to ensure work being undertaken is bona-fide and properly costed. It has already lodged two cases for economic speculation when it comes to the price of roof tiles, and issued 13 fines for failings in hygiene and safety.
Source: Correio da Manhã/ Jornal de Leiria/ Facebook
