Residents in Te Puna and Whakamarama are being warned of ‘bogus' contractors pretending to work for council to undertake work before threatening residents to pay huge bills.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council transportation manager Alex Finn says council has received concerned reports from residents in Paparoa Road and Plummers Point about ‘bogus' workers offering to undertake works on council's behalf.

He says these so called ‘sub-contractors' are approaching private residences offering to work on driveways and install vehicle crossings at a cheap price before demanding higher prices once the work is complete.

In some cases Alex says these people are using 'stand-over” and threatening tactics to try to extort large amounts of money from residents.

'They seem to offer the work at a good price, but when the work is completed the work is not up to standard.”

These contractors are asking to gain access to private land and are not sub-contracted to the council despite what they say, says Alex.

He says contractors employed by the council do not approach residents offering to construct vehicle crossings except in cases where the public are directly affected by a project being completed on the road outside that property.

In this case council is responsible for the costs of the vehicle crossing.

'Our council contractors are restricting their work to road works and we only do vehicle crossings when they're directly associated with a particular council project.

'My advice is to report the matter to police.”