Calls for support in Hartlepool for elderly people targeted ‘ruthlessly and horribly’ by Covid-19 scams

Hartlepool Borough Council Adult and Community Based Services Committee members hit out at scammers for ‘ruthlessly and horribly’ targeting vulnerable adults in the region.

Councillors reported some of the scams are specifically Covid-19 related and have seen elderly residents in Hartlepool lose large amounts of money.

Cllr Stephen Thomas asked for an update on the work being done to tackle such scams, and urged the importance of raising awareness, particularly around online and phone scams.

He said: “One of the things that has come through during the pandemic has been issues around scams and the way in which vulnerable adults across the Tees Valley and nationally have been quite ruthlessly and horribly targeted by scammers.

“We have had some instances in Hartlepool where elderly people have lost life savings because of these scams, and in some instances tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

He made the comments as councillors received the annual report from the Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board for 2019/20, which also looked at plans for 2020/21.

Cllr Sue Little, chair of the adult and community based services committee, praised the benefits of people working together across the region on the board.

She also stressed the importance of working to tackle phone scams, adding people now receive a great number of these calls, and it could be easy for elderly residents to fall victim.

Cllr Little said: “There’s lots and lots of different types of scams going on out there.

“I think for us to highlight them, and hopefully we’ll take it to the board, and they’ll start doing work on it to stop these people scamming our elderly and our most vulnerable people in society.”

Jill Harrison, council director of adult and community based services, said reducing scams and supporting victims is something they have done a considerable amount of work on across the council.

She added more work is still being done however, specifically around tackling Covid-19 related scams.

She said: “That’s something we’ve done a significant amount of work on and we do have a very good working relationship in Hartlepool between the adult services department and the trading standards team in particular.

“We’ve done specific pieces of work with them around support for people who are targeted by cold callers and some of the doorstep scams, and some of that has been picked up by other areas across Tees.

“There’s still more to do and there are some, particularly Covid related scams, and we have promoted information about those to people, but it has brought out some of those particular challenges.”

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