Beware of cheque scam
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• Police are warning this week that hauliers selling trucks, or any other recipient of building society cheques, should not release their goods until the cheque is banked and cleared.
The advice follows a case in Southampton where a usedvehicle dealer was conned out of £57,000 worth of engines after failing to check that a building society cheque tendered had cleared.
DC Steve Hotchin from Bishops Waltham police, who is investigating the case, says: "Don't accept building society cheques unless you can verify them first. People think a building society cheque is infallible but stolen cheques are an increasing problem."
He is also asking hauliers to check any secondhand Mercedes and MAN engines they are offered and to report anything suspicious to him (see Crimeline page 28 for engine numbers).
And Hotchin wants hauliers to tell him if they are offered the job of moving the engines within the UK or abroad.
After releasing 19 Mercedes and MAN engines, Southampton-based C Morgan and Sons (Motors and Spares) was told the Cheltenham and Gloucester cheque had been stolen, when blank, two years ago and so was null and void.
"I would ad vise all those receiving building society cheques to bank them before letting the goods go," Morgan said last week. He had paid £45,000 for the engines and had ordered some specially for the sale.
The buyer, who called himself David Johnson, is described as aged around 50 with a London accent, around 5ft 7in (1.7m) tall, stocky with dark hair and smartly dressed.