I am more than happy to return his knives to him if he shows up again. I am also happy to show him where he can put them, and to let him know that our local bobby would very much like a word with him. Not quite the same as buying from ASDA, since he gave me no receipt so he has no proof of sale - just a dud cheque made out to his personal account. What does concern me is that he has my account number, sort code and signature on the cheque so could set a direct debit mandate to a bogus company. RBS assure me he can't, as they would require further security information, but watch this space (as I keep a close eye on internet banking)...

I think you're right - what you have said below is almost word-for-word what my friend, our local policeman, said. If he shows up for his knives he is more than welcome to them and I have been instructed to call the local police. Have told as many people as I can think of so that they don't get caught out with this one.

Just got conned tonight so pass this round. Dutch guy came round to the door saying that he had been exhibiting at the Ideal Homes Exhibition in Glasgow (not till October but I didn't know that at the time) and had some "Waltmann und sohn" sets of cutlery, chef's knives and pots and pans for sale at 85% discount because he "couldn't take them back with him on the boat". They look like fantastic quality, but there was something about him that I wasn't convinced about. Of course I listened to him and was conned into buying a set of chef's knives for £80 which he told me retailed for £595 (should have smelled a rat). He asked me to write the cheque out to his personal account "C Brennan", which again I thought was dodgey but I figured maybe he was conning the company he worked for or something (more fool me). He had a business card but now I look at it, it just has a UK mobile number and his first name only "Peter". It was just nagging in the back of my mind because after he left I thought - if you can't get these knives home on the boat how did you get them here in the first place?? So I looked up the internet and I found the same set of knives retailing in Amazon for £23.50. I felt sick. Then I called RBS and they cancelled the cheque for me by direct banking. They've put it through as a lost cheque so I'm not even going to be charged for it. What stars! So even though they shafted their shareholders, I would like to kiss RBS tonight ;-))

Will do. I have also mentioned that another company, Scotia double glazing, have been recommended by a friend for having just as good products and less "after-sales" harassment. So far I used a 6-letter word on the phone but they called back half an hour later so I had to use it again. I will try the 4 letter one next time. Thanks again.

Thank you so much for Simon Jarman's address. We had a flat roof installed by Everest which we were delighted with. Unfortunately they have been harassing us every 3 months to buy another product from them, even though I have repeatedly told them that we will not have enough money to replace our windows for at least 5 years. I am going to write a nice letter to Mr Jarman right now and tell him exactly what I think of his sales team. When we do come to replace the windows in 5 years' time it's unlikely we'll chose Everest because we couldn't cope with any more follow-up phone calls!