FARNHAM businesses should keep their guard up, following the latest news of a conman “doing the rounds”.

Farnham showroom manager at Jack Brunsdon & son in Downing Street, Brigitte Davison-Jones, spoke out an encounter, with someone claiming to be a long-standing customer who had spent thousands with the company.

He told Brigitte that his car had broken down and in order to fix it promptly he needed to borrow £38 to £40.

“He just pretended he was a customer, he came in like ‘hello, hello, where’s your husband?’ He told me he was an Italian doctor, he was very nicely dressed, tall and slim,” continued Brigitte.

“He said ‘I need to talk to, I can’t remember his name, a man’. Apparently the company had completed work on his whole house, so was thinking he is an important customer. He acted like he knew everyone. It was very important he spoke with the owner.

“He was polite and complimentary but then he was very flustered and tired and had to sit down – and then he started asking me odd questions.

“I said I would look him up on the system, he didn’t want that though.”

The anonymous man informed Brigitte that he had been working through the night and should be in bed, which is why he was acting distressed and fatigued. But because his car breaking down, he couldn’t get home.

However if she gave him £40 he could fix the car and leave. Brigitte continued: “He told me he didn’t have a mobile, a wallet or anything on him, and no ID for the bank.

“I told him ‘no it’s very strict, I can’t do that’. He asked me again, then walked out with his hands in the air.”

Following her encounter, Brigitte made a call to a colleague in Tunbridge Wells, who remarkably backed up her story, telling her she has also come across this nameless individual (six months ago) and handed him over £40, never to be seen again.

She continued: “Then my other colleague, who used to have a furniture showroom in Twickenham, told me she had given him £40.

“He’s obviously going around the country doing this, and getting away with it. He probably hits lone workers, and does his research on the website, he is a good conman because he asks certain questions and you answer them for him.”

The man is described as in his late 30s, of a tall, thin build, tanned and unshaven with short hair and was wearing an expensive jacket, open-necked shirt and trousers.

Anyone who may have been targeted by a man matching the description above, or with any other information, is asked to contact Surrey Police on 110, quoting incident reference P17222539.

For further information about Action Fraud, go to the website www.action

fraud.police.uk/.