Cunning conman swindles Crouch End shop in fake delivery scam

Scam: the man was captured on the shop's CCTV
Hannah Al-Othman25 October 2015
WEST END FINAL

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A Crouch End shop owner is warning other shopkeepers to be aware after a conman convinced a member of staff to hand over cash from the till.

Miranda Ballard, who runs Muddy Boots, a meat shop in Broadway Parade with her husband Roland, said the man tricked one of her employees when he came into the shop on Monday afternoon.

The 33-year-old believes he had planned the scam as he knew the names of both Mrs Ballard and her employee, an 18-year-old girl called Anne, and she thinks he may have chosen to target the shop because of signs advising customers that improvement works were being carried out.

The man told Anne that he was delivering a set of shelves that had been ordered by her boss, and that he required the balance of £85 to be paid in cash.

When Anne said she would check with her manager the man made a phone call, and she overhead him speaking to a woman, who he said was Mrs Ballard.

After the conman told her that he had been in contact with Mrs Ballard, Anne handed him the money, and he left the shop.

However, she soon realised what had happened when he failed to return with the shelves, and alerted her boss, who called the police.

Mrs Ballard told the Standard: "She was absolutely gutted, she felt so bad, but I've watched the CCTV and I think he would have convinced me I'd ordered them he was so confident.

"It's really rubbish, as a shop owner you don't want to assume everyone is out to get you, it stops you trusting in humans, but it shouldn't.

"We have 400 lovely customers a week, and what I'm trying to get across to the team is don't let it change the team or the shop, don't let idiots like this get us down."

She said the £85 that the man scammed from the shop was a "large amount of money for a start-up", and she is warning other business owners to be aware.

Mrs Ballard said that after posting a warning on Facebook and Twitter about the man, other shop owners in the area had come forward to say they had also fallen victim to a similar scam - and some recognised her description of the man.

She said he was white, aged between 45 and 50, and was 5'6" to 5'7" tall, of slim build, and had a distinctive 'Hollywood' tattoo on his neck.

Kay Eracleous, who runs Kay and Kompany hair salon in Muswell Hill, said her business had also fallen victim to a similar con, and she believes the same man - or a group of men working together - may be responsible.

She told the Standard that in 2005 a man went into the shop and said he had a delivery of tiles "that Kay had ordered."

He again used her name, and the name of the receptionist, Mandy, and tricked Mandy into handing over £100 by pretending to telephone Kay to confirm the delivery.

The salon owner said she then implemented a policy that stopped staff handing over cash from the till, and when the business was targeted again last year in an identical scam, the fraudster ran away when the receptionist started to phone Mrs Eracleous.

She said: "He's very clever, he will listen and learn, it seems like he's telling the truth, and we do trust people.

"I want shopkeepers to be aware, he's very convincing, he knows what he's doing.

"Small independent shops can't afford to lose that kind of money, he picks on the small independent boutiques - and there's a lot of them in Crouch End, in Muswell Hill, in north London."

A City of London Police spokesman said: "This report was made on the 19 October to Action Fraud and is currently being assessed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau."

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