Cornwall Council Trading Standards has issued an urgent warning for people to be on their guard against mobile sellers offering bargain priced generators, compressors and kitchen knives.

Travelling gangs are back in Cornwall a year after they plagued the area with offers of cut-priced power tools and generators, some of which were found to be unsafe, some were poor quality imitations of branded tools and none of which were covered by any valid guarantee.

Nigel Strick from Trading Standards is urging the public not to be tempted into buying any of these so called bargains.

“This gang operates out of hire cars and vans, stopping people in the street or calling at units on industrial estates and offering them very cheap power tools, generators and even kitchen knives. Last year the sellers were very pushy and we received several calls from people who even had items forced upon them," he said.

“Some of the brand names sound similar to well-known brands and the prices may sound really cheap but all of these items are bad news.

“We have already received calls from people in the Liskeard area but we know that the gang is likely to visit every town in Cornwall over the next few days before disappearing again without a trace. If everyone in Cornwall refuses to be bullied or conned into buying from this gang perhaps they won’t bother coming back again next year.”

Trading Standards advice is clear:

• Never deal with anyone who approaches you in the street or who knocks at your door without an appointment.

• Power tools and other high value items are best purchased from a reputable, local shop.

• Unknown brands and unknown sellers could mean the item is unsafe.

• Items bought from someone in the street will not be covered by any guarantee and the chances of getting hold of the seller if anything does go wrong are probably nil.