This is the column in which Brent and Harrow Trading Standards officer STEVE PLAYLE offers readers tips on how to become wiser consumers and avoid being ripped off by unscrupulous traders.

This month, he has cowboy builders in his sights with a sorry tale of how one local pensioner lost her life savings to a highly organised gang of travellers.

I have just completed a year long investigation into a gang of rogue builders that has, to be frank, left me frustrated and annoyed that the system has badly let the victim down.

It all started with a complaint about an 83-year-old Harrow pensioner who was told she had a couple of loose roof tiles. She reluctantly agreed to let this cold calling "builder" have a look, but was then descended upon by a gang of four who pretended to make themselves busy around her house. By the end of the day, they presented the victim with a bill for £6,800 and whisked her off in their white van to the building society to collect their money.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and everyone to whom I have told this story says the same thing: Why didn't she call the police? These thieves caused their victim such anxiety and caused her to feel so intimidated that she just couldn't think straight. I have got to know her quite well and the saddest thing for me is that she feels unable to tell her own daughter about the whole incident -- she feels too ashamed.

My enquiries led me through an intriguing web of accommodation addresses, false names and bank accounts. I executed three search warrants, actually breaking into one house that was being used to receive mail, and I discovered more pensioners who had paid extortionate amounts of money for very little work. I finally tracked down the leader of the gang to an expensive detached property in Berkshire, complete with several brand new Mercedes on the driveway.

I gathered evidence to prove trade descriptions and Theft Act charges. But the whole case rests on putting one elderly pensioner in the witness box to positively identify somebody she saw two or three years ago, because that is how long the case could take to come to trial.

If you have an elderly relative, friend or neighbour, please tell them never, ever, to allow into their homes a builder who cold calls saying minor work needs doing. If building work does need to be carried out, call Trading Standards and we will send a guide on how to go about organising it properly.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.