At the January Parish Council meeting, PCSO Mark Hutchinson made a
special appeal for Natlanders to be on the look out for door-to-door
salespeople claiming to be from a Probation Service in the North East. If
someone knocks on your door you are asked to ring 101
with details, especially if you have spotted the number plate of the van which
drops them off, as soon as you have (politely!) closed the front door.
These people have been trying to sell their goods in Natland recently
and elsewhere in the South Lakes over the past year or so but our local police
force have only just had definite confirmation that Durham, Northumberland and
Cleveland Probation Service do not operate such a scheme. They never send
offenders or ex-offenders into rural areas to sell their wares in this way and
so we can be sure that this operation is a scam.