A VULNERABLE elderly couple are warning others to be on their guard after rogue traders forced them to hand over £2,300 for cleaning their drive.

Len and Betty Hewitt say they were quoted just £250 for the work after a cold caller knocked on their door in Clacton.

But they ended up paying almost ten times as much after being talked into withdrawing cash from their bank.

Retired electrical engineer Len, 85, withdrew most of the cash from their mortgage account.

Betty, 80, said: “They said they had been doing some work up the road and would we like ours done.

“They knocked on the door. We didn’t let them in, but he said would we like our driveway washed because it is rather dirty.

“But after he did the drive he asked for more money and told Len he owed £1,500.

“We had to take it out of my mortgage account.

“They even used our water and we are on a water meter.”

The crooks then tried to blag themselves some more work to charge the pensioners for.

Betty said: “They had left an awful lot of black mess.

“They were supposed to wash it down and put sand on to seal it, but then he decided to do the roof.

“They sprayed the roof, even though we didn’t ask them to - they just did it.

“He wanted to do the whole roof, but I said no.

“Then he wanted £250 after that.

“I said we hadn’t got any money and couldn’t pay, but he insisted so we had to get the rest out.

“He said you can go down to the bank, which we did.

“That was the only money we had.”

The conman demanded a third payment of £1,000.

“I said there is no way we can give you £1,000,” said Betty.

“He was standing on the doorstep. He was supposed to ring his governor to see if we could have it at a discount.”

The couple, of St John’s Road, paid another £500.

They were persuaded to stump up a whopping £2,300 in total.

Army veteran Len, who served with the Royal Signals in the Korean War, said: “If I’d really thought about it, I’d have said to the bank we are under siege up there - can you call the police? - but I was worried about getting back to my wife.”

Betty added: “We’ve been silly really and I don’t want other old people like us to be taken in.

“But they just kept on and on and on about the money and in the end we just gave it to them.

“The bloke next door said we’d been done because it should only cost a few hundred pounds, but we didn’t know that until afterwards.

“They even took all the paving stones from outside. There is just earth now, so I will have to get a builder to do it.”

The couple don’t believe they will see the gang or their money again.

“We can’t do anything about it,” said Betty.

“My friend came round and said she would have a go at them if they turned up again, but they didn’t come.

“I want to warn people to be on the look-out.

“Don’t let them do any work or you will get stung for money.

“It’s a huge amount of money. I don’t suppose we will ever get it back.”