But that didn't stop a gang of summertime conmen attempting to fleece the now partially sighted but immensely house-proud Hindley pensioner of more than £2,400 for supposedly reproofing his roof.

Thankfully, a relative intervened at the eleventh hour and confronted the men in their battered plain white van, forcing them to flee.

But by then they had already pocketed more than £1,000 of his precious savings – and for little more than putting a tatty ladder, (which was so important to them that they abandoned it), up to the eaves of the pre-fabricated three-bedroomed semi.

Wigan consumer protection chiefs are now trying to trace the men, who were in their 20's with Irish accents and were apparently from outside the area.

The embarrassed victim's grandson decided to speak out as a warning to other old people – and their families – to beware of cowboy tradesman and their "utterly despicable" tricks against the elderly.

He said: "My grandad was out in the front of his garden when this man with a clip board approached him.
"He's often there because although he is partially blind, he loves to keep it in top form.

"These guys said that they were doing work in the local area, they claimed to be working on the roof at Asda Wigan, and said that they had this special product which was designed for asbestos roofs and sealed
up the cracks and things like that.

"Grandad, being typical of his generation, asked them in for a brew and then the conversation quickly turned to money and the sum of £2,450 was mentioned.

"They started straightaway and it was suspicious right from the start because they put no scaffolding up, no cat ladders or anything like that, which meant that they were walking directly on the asbestos sheet roofing and probably causing more damage than before they started as well.

"As far as we can see all they did during this two or three hours was
to scrub the top of the surface of the roof with a yard brush, but then they never even bothered clearing up the stuff they dislodged, because the gutters were still rammed full of it.

"They then came round at half past six in the morning the following day and proceeded to knock on his door and one of the guys got quite threatening with my grandad, saying that they needed the money up front, the full amount.

"Grandad said that he could only pay them what he had which was £1,100, but there was no receipt, no contract, no company literature, company registration, phone numbers or anything like that.

"I only heard about this the following day when I went around to my parents, so I went straight round to my grandad's to get what had happened out of him.

"The ladders were still there and the paint so I opened the tin and had a look but physically it was nothing like what was on the spec sheet the men had given my grandad. It looked like some kind of cheap red oxide substitute.
"I took the next day off work and went straight to my grandad's and sat waiting to see if they would come back.

"Two of these men turned up again in the white van but this time they pulled into the bottom of the street 300 yards away or so and one got out and seemed to be having a good look around, probably looking to see if there were any authorities there waiting for them.

"They were acting very suspiciously and came to the house and this time one came to the front and one went around the side door and basically pushed it open and saw me inside.

"I approached him and asked him what he was doing, what company he was from, what was the company registration number and any documentation he may have on him and followed him back to the van, because I wanted to get him out of there as quickly as possible.

"They drove off saying that they were going to get their gaffer and they would be back in ten minutes.
"Of course that is the last we have seen of them.

"He realises now that he has made a mistake and as a proud gentleman, he's embarrassed.
"Its a learning curve for him and for everybody, I reckon."