POLICE in Australia are looking for a group of con artists allegedly led by a man with a ‘strong Irish accent’.

A warning was shared by Northern Beaches Police Area Command to watch out for the group of fraudsters, after an elderly woman was conned out of $8,000 Australian dollars (€5,000).

According to police, “grubs” knock on the doors of the elderly and vulnerable, say they’ve just cleaned out the neighbour’s gutters and offer to do theirs for as little as $40.

“Once they get the yes, another member from the scammers’ nest comes along to announce they’re from the same company and that the roof needs repairing – for $3,500,” a police spokesperson said.

They then return to say that the roof was worse than they thought, and will cost another $6,000 in cash to repair.

A 79-year-old woman from the town of Seaforth recently fell victim to the scam and made two trips to her bank to retrieve the money from her savings.

“She says the first was in his late teens or early 20s. The second, who drove the scam, was in his late 30s and had the strong Irish accent,” police said.

However the appeal, which was shared on police social media pages, has received backlash from the public over an image of a witchetty grub with the caption “to be sure, to be sure” attached to the appeal.

“Irish maggots- why is it ok to use lazy stereotypes associated with people of Irish heritage and not others?” one user asked.

Another wrote: “‘To be sure to be sure’? Really? This is precisely the type of ignorance that prevents the entire community from trusting the police force.”

Police have appealed to the Sydney public to report anyone knocks offering to do work in, on or about the home, especially if they’re demanding cash up front.

“You don’t want to lose your hard-earned savings and we want to catch, charge and put them before the courts.”

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