Police have urged motorists to be cautious after reports of fraudsters attempting to scam drivers out of money by flagging them down and claiming they have broken down or run out of petrol on motorways in the north of England.
West Yorkshire Police say that the fraudsters are flagging down cars and offering to exchange cheap jewellery for money to buy petrol to buy petrol, only to do the same only a few minutes later at another junction.
Inspector Christopher Norbury, from West Yorkshire Police’s Protective Services Operations, said:
“The latest incident occurred yesterday afternoon (7/12) around 3.15pm when police received calls of a man acting suspiciously at Ainley Top, Huddersfield.
“The man was reported to have been flagging down motorists coming off the motorway, claiming to have run out of fuel and offering to exchange what was described as cheap jewellery for money. The driver also claimed he was from Germany but did not speak with any discernibly foreign accent.
“The latest incident echoes what we have seen across the motorway network in the last few weeks involving jewellery been offered in exchange for cash after people claim to have run out of petrol or encountered some form of emergency on the hard shoulder.”
Inspector Norbury warned drivers against stopping on the motorway, saying:
“Stopping on any part of the motorway network is extremely dangerous and our advise would be to only do this in an emergency.
“The motorway network is patrolled by ourselves and officers from the Highways Agency as well as being constantly monitored via CCTV for incidents, including breakdowns.
“The fact that people have stopped to help another stranded motorist shows how publicly spirited people are, which is a nice thing to see at this time of year, but our advise is not to stop and leave it to the police and our partners to deal with.”
