Woman, 80, duped into buying poor quality fish

Published on Thursday 12 February 2009 08:54

AN 80-year-old woman was duped into paying £350 for 30lbs of poor quality fish by a pair of fraudsters travelling door-to-door.

The men pressured the woman, who lives in the Greenhill Place area, into buying the fish, initially asking for 450 for a quantity of lemon sole, halibut and sea bass.

The men eventually convinced the woman to pay 350, before removing a couple of unmarked boxes and dumping the contents straight into her freezer before she had a chance to inspect it.

When cooked, it was found to be of very poor quality, full of bones and its flavour was said to be "unidentifiable".

PC Bell, a community beat officer, warned the public to be on their guard and appealed for information.

He said: "A fair price for 30lb of the kind of good quality fish allegedly on offer would be about 250, but the final product turned out to be far from what was promised."

Both wore blue overalls, wellington boots and spoke with strong Newcastle accents.

One man is white, 40-50 years old, 6ft tall and well built with brown hair.

The second man is described as white, between 20 and 30 years old 5ft 7in tall , with a round face and dark but greying hair.