East Staffordshire Borough Council has received reports of a number of restaurants in the neighbouring borough of Tamworth being targeted by a bogus ‘bailiff company’, possibly purporting to be acting on behalf of Tamworth Borough Council. The bogus callers in Tamworth have contacted restaurants by phone and demanded card payments with the threat of removing goods from the restaurant if the amount wasn’t paid.
Whilst East Staffordshire Borough Council would like to stress that there have been no reports of this occurring in East Staffordshire, it would like to urge businesses in the area to be extra vigilant.
Anyone who has calls of this nature that they suspect to be bogus, should contact the Council’s Revenues Team before making any payments by telephone on 01283 508859, by email at recovery@eaststaffsbc.gov.uk or by calling into one of the Customer Service Centres in the Market Place, Burton upon Trent or the Library in Uttoxeter.
Any businesses which have an account with East Staffordshire Borough Council will have a unique account reference number which an enforcement agency would be able to provide in genuine cases – please do not reveal your reference number to anyone, but you could ask the caller to provide it. If they can’t provide it, the call is likely to be bogus.
Businesses receiving suspicious calls are also advised to check whether they actually owe any money and to verify the name and identity of the company calling; this could include telephoning a head office to confirm the debt.