The woman, who does not want to be named, is one of the many victims across Wigan to be conned by the trio – two men and a 15-year-old boy – who claim to be Tarmac specialists.

Trading Standards has received complaints from all over the borough as the gang targets elderly and vulnerable people.
Instead of sorting out the pensioner's drive, in Lowton, they have left it a sticky patchwork mess at the front of her property and charged her £330 for the shoddy work.

She lives alone and was scared to complain at first for fear of reprisals.
She said: "I just feel like an absolute idiot; I am spitting mad to tell you the truth. I wish I had not fallen for it, but I so desperately needed it doing and I thought I had found a bargain when I managed to beat them down by £150."

A man in his 20s arrived at her house claiming that he was in the area and would do her drive for her that day.
He quoted her £500 and she told him that there was no way she was paying that.

She said: "He seemed to back down straight away and I suppose that was when I should have become suspicious. But he seemed so well-spoken and polite."

They agreed a price of £330 and he returned half an hour later with a man in his 50s who was dressed in a suit and spoke with a slight Irish accent. A 15-year-old youngster was also in tow.

They did not give their names and started to pour hot tarmac across her drive. Two hours later they knocked on her door demanding the cash.
At first she felt unable to tell what a botched job they had made of it so she paid in full.

Three Whelley residents have been ripped off by the same gang. They were charged £450 between them to clean, re-sand and seal their block paving. What they got for their cash was a quick jet wash of their drives and then a brushing of sand.

Wigan's chief Trading Standards officer, Julie Middlehurst said: "It's clear this gang is operating all over the borough and they may be doing the work but from the complaints we have received it seems to be of a very poor standard."

"The people who have fallen victim to this gang have lost relatively large amounts of money for work that appears to be quite poor. We would urge anyone who has a visit from this gang or anyone else who calls offering to do this kind of work to say no."