Crook sells £200 sack of potatoes - tells victim it’s an iPad

The victim was approached by a man in Dark Lane, Batley, who offered him an iPad for sale. The price was agreed and the men drove to a nearby cash machine on Commercial Street where the £200 was exchanged for a black laptop bag which the victim believed contained the iPad. However, after leaving the scene he discovered that it was actually full of potatoes.

The offence happened on October 24 at about 4pm, but West Yorkshire Police only released details yesterday. The suspect was a chubby white man in his 40s, with dark blonde hair and an Irish accent.

Police in Batley are asking people to contact them if they are offered electrical goods on the streets. The public are being urged not to give money to strangers for goods they have not checked or even seen.

Pc Teresa McCarter, of the Batley Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “It should be commonsense to check that you are getting what you pay for but as a similar incident to this one in Birstall took place in the summer we are warning people to be wary of accepting deals that seem to be too good to be true. On August 10, a 35-year old woman paid for what turned out to be very poor quality electrical items after she was approached by a man in the Birstall Retail Park.”

The suspect was a white man in his mid to late-30s who had red hair, a pale complexion and was of medium build. He was wearing a blue T-shirt with a red logo on the chest and blue trousers. Pc McCarter added: “In these circumstances, after money changes hands there will be very little that you can do to get your money back, so we are both urging people not to fall for these types of cons, but also to report the matter to the police immediately so that we can respond as quickly as possible and hopefully catch the offenders.”