Laois residents warned as children among recent bogus house callers

Multiple people, including children, have been reported to gardaí in recent days for calling to homes in Portlaoise and posing as charity representatives seeking donations. 

Councillor Marie Tuohy has urged people to be careful when it comes to home callers this Christmas following her own experience with a bogus caller.

The Portlaoise councillor told the Leinster Express / Laois Live that when a man called to her door selling lines on Thursday, 18 December, that she "knew it wasn't right from the beginning."

Cllr Tuohy explained that the man knocked on her door in Portlaoise with just a sheet of paper with lines that had photos across the top of children. She spotted that 'GOALFast' was written on the page, all in one word, and that six or seven lines had been filled in. 

What stood out to Cllr Tuohy was that one supposed donation of €50 was from a person in Bray, County Wicklow. This nudged her to ask the man for his ID, to which he told her "he had none and that it was coming next Monday." She then asked him a number of basic questions about the charity and where he was based, with him simply responding: "We do the best for them all."

READ NEXT: Big step forward as Midlands Hospice to serve Laois gets green light from Council

When Cllr Tuohy enquired about the donation from Bray, the man told her "we go all over the country." Despite his inability to answer these straightforward questions, Cllr Tuohy emphasised that "he was very confident, very assured of himself."

With alarm bells ringing for the councillor, she decided to ring the Garda Station and give a brief description of the caller as well as post on Facebook to warn others in the local area. 

Cllr Tuohy said: "I rang the gardaí and it wasn't the first call they had gotten. My description didn't match the others but subsequently we realised there was more than one in my area."

From private messages she received from neighbours following the Facebook post, she learned that the same man who called to her door had also been to other houses in the area as people sent screenshots from doorbell cams.

Other messages sent to Cllr Tuohy revealed that a group, which included children singing, had also been doing the rounds in Portlaoise. 

Speaking to the Leinster Express / Laois Live, Cllr Tuohy said: "This time of year there's enough genuine people looking for a bit of help. Somebody vulnerable, somebody living alone I feel would be very open to intimidation."

She reiterated that the person who called to her door was very confident and it's possible that vulnerable people could be intimidated by this, as Cllr Tuohy explained that she feels as if he would have been more insistent with somebody living alone. 

She urged people to ask for ID when someone calls to their door claiming to represent any organisation as this particular incident saw the person attempting to impersonate a legitimate charity. 

Cllr Tuohy said: "When somebody comes to the door very self-assured then it's different. When they have the confidence to present themselves like that at the door then you might doubt yourself. Please don't, please check it up and at the very least ask for ID.

"If in doubt, just ring the guards. The guards are very open and receptive to this and will act on it."

Cllr Tuohy concluded: "You could be saving yourself or somebody else from financial loss."

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme