News

Community champion protects elderly and vulnerable residents from scammers

Posted 02/07/14

Community champion Ian Brooke received a Hero Award at the Trading Standards Institute’s (TSI) Conference in Harrogate on Wednesday for the significant contribution he made to consumer protection in Kirklees.

Kirklees Federation of Tenants and Residents Associations (KFTRA) set up a Financial Fitness course to help local tenants and residents identify potential scams, fraud and doorstep crime, as well as learn new skills regarding debt awareness. 

Mr Brooke quickly became the eyes and ears of the community and regularly volunteers his time at the local Area Committee, Neighbourhood Watch Network, Huddersfield Pensioners Group and Kirklees Tenants and Residents (TRA) Committee meetings. 

When suspicious telephone calls from 'Microsoft' offering to fix a computer fault over the phone begun targeting elderly people, Mr Brooke's Financial Fitness training allowed him to identify it as a scam and alert the elderly and vulnerable residents in his area, preventing a potentially devastating financial loss. 

TSI chief executive Leon Livermore said: 'As the recent TSI Workforce Survey shows, funding for trading standards services across England and Wales will decline on an average of more than 40% over the lifetime of this parliament. While we work toward a more consistent funding mechanism, heroes like Ian play a vital role in helping trading standards officers protect vulnerable members of the community. The Financial Fitness programme is a prime example of how this can be done successfully, resulting in a win-win situation for those taking part and the communities they live in.

“I am delighted to present Ian with a TSI Hero Award, giving it well deserved national recognition both at the level of the individual volunteers and at the collective trading standards level.”

The Hero Award is a fantastic opportunity for TSI to celebrate outstanding contributions by individuals or groups of people to consumer protection in our communities.

Every year TSI is deeply inspired by the stories of winners from around the country – their bravery, altruism and hard work, which too often does not receive due recognition – and presents them with an award at TSI's annual conference. 

For more information please contact press office at [email protected] or 08456089430 / 07780675815. Follow us on Twitter @tsi_uk or #TSIConf