Police who initially notified local residents of the NW9 postcode area about an incident of possible fraud, have confirmed that the officers seen knocking on doors in the NW9 area were genuine.
The men that were suspected of being bogus police were in fact genuine police officers from a specialist unit carrying out a genuine enquiry.
An alert was initially posted via OWL to stating that there were suspicions of possible fraud or burglary.
The initial alert said: “On the 28/02/2023 at 1220hrs a white man in plain clothes with police ID called at a house in Coniston Gardens, NW9, he had around his neck a lanyard with Met Police ID and also a warrant card holder identical to the current genuine issue – he was captured on RING doorbell.
“When no answer to the RING he looked through the front door before leaving the driveway and where he joined two white males, all three wandered around the roads. About 30m (3o minutes) later the same male returned and had an interaction with the resident via the RING which raised suspicions. Descriptions to follow.
“There are unconfirmed reports that the same male had been in the area of NW9 yesterday calling at addresses claiming to be collecting for the Earthquake, presumably without police ID.
“Both instances are probably ploys to see if a house is empty or not – if empty or a door unanswered more likely to be a target of a burglary.”
