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Former mayoress fears men's return
A DIDCOT woman is frightened that two men who pressed her into having work done on her roof will be back to demand money from her after she stopped a cheque she gave them.
Former town mayoress Janet Dineen, 50, from Sinodun Road, a courier for express firm DHL, said: "They kept on and on at me until I was at my wits' end.
"My totally disabled daughter needed me and my husband, who has been left with brain damage after a stroke, needed me. They could see them in the room, but even though I said I did not want the work done, they persisted.
"They ground me down until I did not know what to do."
Mrs Dineen said they insisted on doing the work there and then on tiles at the front and back, and then retarring and gravelling a flat roof at the back.
She said: "I did not want the work done. I told them I had no money on me.
"They said they would accept a post-dated cheque for the £430 they charged, but I put a stop on it as soon as they'd gone.
"Now I'm frightened they will come back demanding their money."
Mrs Dineen said the men spoke with foreign accents.
She said: "They spoke to me in English, but spoke another language between themselves and were looking at me and laughing.
"They obviously thought I was an easy target.
"I just feel so angry that I did not get rid of them, but they were so very persistent."
She said she reported the two men - white, both in their 30s and who had a van with Rooftops, Aylesbury, on the side - to police and trading standards officers.
She said: "I was promised action would be taken if the men came back.
"I just want this to be a warning to people not to be ground down by these characters."
Mrs Dineen cares for her daughter Sarah, 22, who was left severely disabled from birth, unable to do anything for herself, and for her husband Dave, 67, who recently suffered a fit and a stroke after two falls at home.
There are no Rooftops firms listed in Aylesbury and the ones in High Wycombe and Watford did not have people operating in the Didcot area at the time, while the High Wycombe firm does not have writing on its vans.
2:00pm Friday 25th July 2008
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